What is Honour Based Abuse?

Honour based abuse is a collection of behaviours and practices used to control behaviour within families in order to protect perceived cultural and religious beliefs and/or honour. The concept of ‘honour’ is extremely important in some communities. To compromise a family’s or a community's ‘honour’ is to bring dishonour and shame; this can have severe consequences. The punishments can include, false imprisonment, threats of violence, conspiracy to commit a variety of assaults, intimidation coercion or abuse, including psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional abuse and in extreme cases murder. Punishment is carried out in a belief that it restores the honour of the family or community. In most honour-based abuse cases there are multiple perpetrators from the immediate family, sometimes the extended family and occasionally the community at large. 
  
 Some examples of the causes of honour based violence include:

• Judgements about your acceptable behaviour relating to sexual relationships, dress codes, religious adherence, or family dynamics.  
• Because of your relationships with people outside of your race, class, religious or caste community
• Because you are LGBT+ and this goes against the cultural norms of your community
 

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