Rädsla för förlust av liv och heder

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis was to examine honor conflicts that arose between girls with Swedish-foreign origin and their parents, but also to explore an honor conflict that resulted in an extreme form of violent crime, namely the murder of a young girl. The participants were different family members with foreign origins. Data were collected from qualitative interviews with 16 female and 7 male participants and were analysed according to Grounded Theory. The families were described in terms of disharmonic relations and dysfunctional growing up conditions. Fear was found to be a core variable in all the participants’ experience of the situation and also an important underlying cause of the conflict with its final outcome. The results showed that the girls’ fear during the conflict process included both mental and physical experiences. Fear was also described as an underlying cause of turning points of the conflict and the girls’ decision making in whether to stay or abandon their families. The mothers’ fear was accentuated by their daughters´ bodily and behavioral changes during puberty and was reported to be due to their concern that the girl might acquire bad teenage habits. However, the main reason for fear reported by the mothers was that they feared that the girls would disgrace the family name by violating chastity norms. The fathers described their fear of having their reputation disgraced, which in turn would lead to social exclusion. Another finding in the study was time distance, which moderated the fear. The concept of fear was a major variable also in the retrospective case that included the murder of a young girl. The male family members of this specific family were afraid of losing their power and honor, combined with unresolved internal conflicts and external intervention, which all contributed to the murder. The results are discussed in terms of attachment theory, development theories, conflict theory, as well as acculturation theory.