Femicide as genocide: dissecting the phenomena of honour-based violence

This paper investigates honour-based violence (HBV) and ‘honour’ killings in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The phenomenon has increased widely in numerous underdeveloped nations and has become progressively more apparent in the West. The thematic study and mixed methods approach deployed in this study, allowed the researcher to perform in-depth research to fill a gap within the literature. The core of this research is a quantitative survey with 200 women and men respondents, with an additional 55 in-depth qualitative interviews with policy makers, academics, United Nations representatives, and NGO members. Honour-based violence typically entails violent acts perpetrated against women by male family members, with the primary objective being the safeguarding or restoring of the family’s ‘honour’ amongst the wider community. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first multi-site cultural and gender studies analysis of HBV in Kurdish and Arab communities in the KRI and was conducted as part of the Marie Sklodowska Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship. To combat violence against women (VAW) and enhance awareness of this urgent humanitarian concern, this study connects its findings to the wider international literature and integrates United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5, which aims to empower women and girls.