The Trouble with Honour Killings

Aqsa Parvez. The Shafia family. Banaz. The first two names would be familiar to Ontarians. The third victim, Banaz Mahmod, a Kurdish immigrant in the U.K., died at the hands of the male members of her family. As stories, these share narrative arcs: young women of immigrant families defy their strict and traditional family rules by trying to adapt to the Western values of their new homelands. The headlines read honour killings but does the term marginalize the crime? As TVO prepares for the North American premiere of the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Banaz: An Honour Killing,“ The Agenda examines the intersection between honour, violence, culture and multiculturalism.