Honour culture can lead to severe restrictions on individual freedoms and even to violence. In Sweden, a shocking murder back in 2002 sparked an intense debate about honour culture. A young Kurdish woman was shot dead by her father because he felt she had tarnished the family’s reputation by dating a Swedish man. Since then, Sweden has seen many awareness-raising campaigns about how honour culture affect girls and women.
However less attention has been given to how it affects boys and men; an issue that both writer Arkan Asaad and youth worker Alán Ali have chosen to focus on.
Nathalie Rothschild has been to meet the two Iraqi-born Kurdish Swedes, who both happen to have transitioned from competing in taekwondo to empowering young people.
Nathalie Rothschild 