Abstract

Swedish social services play a pivotal role in preventing men’s violence against women, including honour-based violence. This type of family-based violence is based on norms that disregard human rights. Individuals growing up in an honour context have limited possibilities to choose their own paths in life. The study comprises young women aged eighteen to twenty-five who look back on their vulnerable positions and the circumstances resulting in their seeking help from social services. They also share their experiences of the support that they had received from social services. Semi-structured interviews with ten women were conducted. The data were analysed through a qualitative content analysis. The findings show that the interviewees are not a homogenous group; circumstances, needs and exposure varied considerably between participants. Professional attention is necessary when threats ensue after divorce, for example, in the case of a bride price refund. Child perspectives must be better considered in the event of a divorce. Women or families that reject standards of honour are subject to harassment in public by people aiming to coerce them into adopting honour norms. Leaving the family was facilitated if one’s fears were taken seriously and experiences of being met with understanding and being well cared for.

Introduction

Swedish social services are increasingly paying attention to children and young adults under the threat of honour-based violence (HBV). In an honour context, the status and honour of a family and social group depend on the chaste and respectable behaviour of girls and women (Bhanbhro et al., 2013; Idriss, 2017). Boys and men are often expected or forced to maintain the hierarchical male order and ensure it is upheld (Gill, 2008). Research has increasingly drawn attention to men’s victimisations in environments where HBV is present. Men can be victims of the same violence as women because of their ‘bodies’, discovery of their sexual orientation and being forced into marriage. Further, state reforms are more focused on protecting victimised women. Victimised men are not noticed to the same extent, and their opportunities for support services are more limited (Idriss, 2021).

Standards of honour involve controlling the sexuality of girls and women, as well as protecting girls’ virginity until marriage (Lidman and Hong, 2018). If violations occur, the collective face must be saved and restored by punishing the norm-breaker, often through psychological or physical violence (Sedem and Ferrer-Wreder, 2014). Women may be controlled through everyday restrictions, for example, by being prohibited from wearing Western clothing, having mobile phones, using social networks or not being allowed to choose with whom they will spend time (Dickson, 2014; Björktomta, 2019; Strid et al., 2021). Breaches of honour norms may result in deadly violence; the UNFPA (2000) estimates that around 5,000 girls and women around the world were exposed to honour killings by members of their families. According to global estimates, 650 million girls and women are forced into marriage (UNICEF, 2021). The proportion of girls and women who have been exposed to genital mutilation is estimated to amount to 200 million (UNICEF, 2020).

Honour culture also finds expression in female genital mutilation as well as child and forced marriage (cf Bhanbhro et al., 2016; Gangoli et al., 2018). Yet there are wide varieties of honour norms; female genital mutilation and child marriage do not necessarily form part of honour cultures. Research has also shown that honour norms are not always the motive for child or forced marriage. Poverty is a factor in many low- and middle-income countries because parents are relieved of the financial burden of their daughters. In addition, marriage may hold economic advantages in the form of the bride price the family receives when their daughter is married off (Lee-Rife et al., 2012).

Several studies have shown that HBV cannot be related to a specific religion, ethnicity or country (Gill, 2008; Dickson, 2014; Bhanbhro et al., 2016; Lidman and Hong, 2018). Patriarchal honour codes occur in Arabia, the Horn of Africa and Sought Asia. Cohen and Nisbett (1994) found that the masculinity norms of the southern US states show significant overlap with honour cultures. Patriarchal honour codes based on women’s subjugation and behaviour about men’s honour and status can also be found in Latin American cultures (Dietrich and Schuett, 2013). The Swedish Gender Equality Agency advocates a broader perspective on HBV about the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive (2011/36/EU). Financial transactions or so-called bride purchases in connection with child and forced marriages largely overlap with what is regarded as human trafficking in the EU directive. Swedish authorities have identified individuals exposed to HBV as particularly vulnerable. These may include persons, often from Eastern Europe, who are exploited for financial gain in connection with child and forced marriage; sometimes, they are forced to beg, and occasionally, some of the exposed have functional impairment (Olsson et al., 2022).

There are similarities as well as differences between intimate partner violence and HBV: both are based on hierarchical, patriarchal, gender-based power structures, but there are some differences in expression (Gill, 2008; Idriss, 2017). HBV has a collective character where both men and women from a family or clan come together to punish a person who is considered to violate the group’s rigid gender roles. That should be underlined in a comparison of individualist and collectivist approaches in family patterns and child-rearing. Kağıtçıbaşı (2017) has pointed out that both types of systems can provide children with warm, nurturing environments or could conversely be characterised by control, oppression and violence.

HBV in a Swedish context

In Sweden, 40,000 girls and women, of which 7,400 are minors, are estimated to have been genitally mutilated before arriving in Sweden (National Board of Health and Welfare, 2016). Swedish statistics indicate that 15 per cent of the approximately twenty murders annually classified as domestic violence are related to HBV (National Board of Health and Welfare, 2018). A Swedish investigation including three surveys of 6,002 fifteen-year-olds in the country’s three largest cities has shown that every sixth teenager lives in an honour context (Strid et al., 2021).

It is difficult to estimate how many children and adults are exposed to violence in their families, but the area is probably largely unrecorded. Linell (2017) found that children avoid disclosing abuse because they do not know their rights, do not understand the abuse as wrong, feel too young or are afraid of the consequences of a report. Dealing with violence in close relationships is not an unusual task at Swedish social services; violence often occurs in ethnically Swedish families. It should be noted that cases where HBV is present are not as common in Swedish social services. BRÅ (2023a) states that only 10 per cent of reported crimes involving violence against children are related to HBV. Swedish statistics on crimes of honour reported to the police (year 2020 to November 2023) show that there were 163 reports regarding coercion of marriage and misleading marriage, forty-five reports regarding child marriage and 166 reports regarding female genital mutilation. The majority of those exposed were girls aged 13–17, and the suspected parents were relatively new arrivals to Sweden. A large proportion of the suspected parents have mental or social problems BRÅ (2023b), the statistics of reported crimes).

Based on international human rights agreements specifically focused on violence against women and children, Swedish legislation for social work professionals has been clarified. Clarifications have, for instance, resulted from Sweden’s incorporation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child into law in 2020, the new criminal classification of honour-based oppression (Swedish Government Bill, 2021/22), as well as revised regulations on how public authorities should address such violence (HSLF-FS 2022:39).

Despite stricter legislation, research indicates that HBV is still complex and challenging to handle and remains associated with multiple dilemmas (Olsson and Bergman, 2021). Some studies have shown that public authorities, by differentiating between intimate partner violence and HBV, operate according to stereotypical ideas that stigmatise and categorise people with migrant backgrounds (Baianstovu and Strid, 2024). Dickson (2014) has argued that this has created uncertainty, leading to a lack of active initiatives against HBV from authorities.

The aim and rationale of the study

The study aims 2-fold: examining the circumstances that lead individuals exposed to HBV to seek help from social services, as well as their experiences of the support and relief offered by social services.

As HBV is a complex issue that affects individuals’ living conditions in many aspects, scholarship on the subject is multifaceted. Indeed, this is a strength, but it also makes obtaining an overview of the research field and its findings challenging. Much of this research has focused on societal power differentiations and the underlying causes of HBV. As such, this study does not examine the underlying causes of HBV. This study aims to shed light on an understudied area where the focus is on how individuals exposed to violence perceive the support received from social work agencies in Sweden. To our knowledge, there has been no examination of specific experiences related to support from social services thus far. The searchlight focuses on field experience rather than formal hypothesis or theory testing.

Method

A qualitative exploratory design was chosen based on the epistemological assumption that this type of research involves narratives through which people contribute to a broader understanding of a phenomenon based on their contexts, experiences and words (Patton, 2015). The study employed purposeful sampling since the stories of exceptionally knowledgeable key informants opened a window into their lives and conditions (Patton, 2015, p. 13).

Sample and procedures

At first, the aim was to recruit as many men as women, but social services indicated that it is highly unusual for boys or men subject to HBV to seek help or be identified via reports of concern. There are several explanations for the absence of men in this study. Studies show that boys do not seem to seek help to the same extent as girls because they do not believe that professionals understand the problem (Strid et al., 2021). Further, as long as the vulnerability of boys and men is not recognised, traditional masculine norms are allowed in which a real man is not considered a victim (Idriss, 2021).

Inclusion criteria were young people aged eighteen to twenty-five who had had first contact with social services at least six months before the interview. The client should have/have needed support because of being/having been subject to HBV. Clients either could have contacted social services on their initiative or have been identified to social services via so-called reports of concern, for example, reported suspicions that a child is being neglected or abused. Exclusion criteria were clients deemed at risk of deteriorating mental health if they were to participate.

Managers from fifteen social services in mid-Sweden assisted with the recruitment of clients. The recruitment process, therefore, consciously risked skewed selection: social services may choose to contact satisfied users. This was discussed with the involved social services during the study. It should be added that the managers who mediated the contact with the clients also conveyed that the study was an important contribution to knowledge. For example, to better understand the situation of the vulnerable and get guidance in the work with operational development.

Data collection was conducted from September 2018 to June 2020 and included individual face-to-face interviews with ten women from four municipalities. Despite the limitations of only ten participants, this does not undervalue the women’s experiences. It is difficult to recruit participants for this type of research because the group is vulnerable and lives at risk of being exposed to threats and violence. Thus, careful security assessments are required to carry out risk-free interviews.

The included women had been in contact with social services for an average of two to six years. All the respondents were born in Africa or the Middle East. See Table 1 for an overview of why participants had contact with social services.

Table 1.

An overview of the interviewees' needs and granted stake.

Number of participantsReasons for needing supportGranted stake
3Violence and oppression in the parental homeSheltered housing/foster family
5Violence and oppression in the form of forced marriage, of which three child marriagesSheltered housing/foster family/bodyguard
2Violence and oppression in connection with the family’s refusal to adhere to honour normsCounselling for one participant; foster family/sheltered housing for the other.
Number of participantsReasons for needing supportGranted stake
3Violence and oppression in the parental homeSheltered housing/foster family
5Violence and oppression in the form of forced marriage, of which three child marriagesSheltered housing/foster family/bodyguard
2Violence and oppression in connection with the family’s refusal to adhere to honour normsCounselling for one participant; foster family/sheltered housing for the other.
Table 1.

An overview of the interviewees' needs and granted stake.

Number of participantsReasons for needing supportGranted stake
3Violence and oppression in the parental homeSheltered housing/foster family
5Violence and oppression in the form of forced marriage, of which three child marriagesSheltered housing/foster family/bodyguard
2Violence and oppression in connection with the family’s refusal to adhere to honour normsCounselling for one participant; foster family/sheltered housing for the other.
Number of participantsReasons for needing supportGranted stake
3Violence and oppression in the parental homeSheltered housing/foster family
5Violence and oppression in the form of forced marriage, of which three child marriagesSheltered housing/foster family/bodyguard
2Violence and oppression in connection with the family’s refusal to adhere to honour normsCounselling for one participant; foster family/sheltered housing for the other.

A panel comprising four young women with experience living with HBV contributed to constructing the interview guide but did not participate in the interviews. The interviews were recorded and were 40–60 min long. The author carried out, transcribed and analysed the interviews.

The interviews addressed the following areas:

  • Interviewees’ situation before contacting social services.

  • Interviewees’ experiences of the treatment and support received from social services.

  • Whether interviewees still feel subject to HBV that limits their possibilities to determine their lives and future choices freely.

Ethics

The study was approved by the Ethics Review Board in Uppsala, Sweden (Dnr 2018/255), and strictly adhered to guidelines on processing data (General Data Protection Regulation). Interviewees were informed of consent and were guaranteed anonymity at all stages of the study. Because the study concerns vulnerable people, great care was taken to adhere to the ethical principles guiding research in the humanities and social sciences Swedish Research Council (2017).

Data analysis

Interview data were analysed using Qualitative Content Analysis (Graneheim and Lundman, 2004; Graneheim et al., 2017). The analysis involved several systematic, processual steps, facilitating the identification of similarities and differences in the material. One advantage of this logical, transparent structure is that the result is easily accessible to users and professionals. The printed transcripts were read several times to obtain an overall impression of the essence of the material. Then, meaning units were extracted based on the aim of this study. A meaning unit comprises sentences or central paragraphs related to content and context, so-called ‘red threads’ (Graneheim et al., 2017). After identifying a number of common red threads, the text was condensed, and a code was assigned to each unit. These codes were carefully analysed and resulted in several subthemes. The final phase of the analysis resulted in three main themes based on the data as a whole.

Results

Although the interview guide did not include questions about the respondents’ families, the women described their families as desperate and suffering. The interview guide also did not have specific questions on exposure to violence for two reasons: to avoid unprocessed trauma and because highlighting these violent incidents was not part of the aim of the study. The women’s stories were extensive and detailed, which could indicate an experience of a trusting and relaxed atmosphere. During the interviews, it was clear that there is a great need to relate previous experiences of violence and be allowed to tell one’s story. The results comprise four themes derived from the analysis: Denied autonomy, lack of living space and vulnerability; Feelings of non-recognition; Being cared for and offered a supportive network; and Being limited by honour norms in public areas.

Theme 1: Denied autonomy, lack of living space and vulnerability

Life before the break from the family was described as a tightly controlled, limited family life. One respondent said that she had started realising in junior high school that the strict everyday limitations framing her life did not apply to other teens:

For us, it was school and home, school and home. I mean, we’re not allowed to be anywhere, they know the bus schedules, every step we take. They can even use a GPS to see us (R4).

Another woman said: ‘My younger brother has the same rights as my dad’ (R2), and therefore, the brother also had the right to control and punish her if she did not behave respectably at school. One woman said that she had been subject to punishment and correction when she had wanted to expand her living space:

It started when I wanted to ride a bicycle. How can I explain? I have to fight to be allowed to have a job and to bike (R6).

A notable aspect of the majority of the narratives is how both men and women took it upon themselves to monitor and safeguard the collective honour and face by communicating the unacceptability of having contact with authorities, particularly regarding family matters. One interviewee said that connection with social services would lead to her either needing immediate protection or being punished by being denied all forms of contact outside the family for a long time. Some women reported threats from the family if they were to contact social services, which could be about their residence permits being revoked or their children could be taken away. The women testified to the grave consequences of reporting domestic abuse to the police or receiving help from social services. One said:

Later, it became a huge problem for me. I said if they weren’t planning on killing me before, they were planning it now (R9).

Another woman described how her child had been affected when she sought help for divorce. She did not dare assert visitation rights due to escalating threats, and the child was taken to a war-ridden country. She did not think she could pursue the matter, and the family did not allow her to see her child until many years later.

Many women were given responsibilities for housework, siblings and other relatives at a young age. A woman said that when she had opposed the strenuous, unpaid housework assigned to her, she was warned not to seek help:

If you go to social services like I did, they will tell you that you are not a good person. Because I turned against my family and went to social services (R8).

Several women described feelings of anxiety, vulnerability, exposure and fear after deciding to break up with their families and flee. The women said that they only had broken with their families because it was a matter of life or death in an escalating emergency—he hit me every day (R5)—or because they could no longer stand the restricted living space allowed them.

Theme 2: Feelings of non-recognition

Although most of the women were very satisfied with the support they had received from social services over time, they also described experiences of being rejected, misunderstood or treated passively; the road to assistance could be extended. One woman told of her fear when violence escalated at home:

I couldn’t speak Swedish, so my friend tried to contact social services. My appointment was not that soon; it was far away (R5).

But when social services finally understood her situation, she quickly received help. In one woman’s experience, it had been easier to receive support from social services as a minor, that is, under eighteen, than as an adult. A woman who had fled a forced marriage said that social services are too anonymous, and it was hard to understand what help they could offer. She would have wanted social services to be more present in Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) instruction. She could feel guarded to following standards of honour by other participants in the language programme, and she wished for better information on available help and support as well as human rights:

You have to try to teach people not just the language, but also about freedom…//.. teach people that there are social services (R6).

One woman described how she had summoned the courage to seek help from social services. She was then informed that a joint meeting had to take place with her parents:

This was my worst nightmare. Maybe the social workers think that some teens want to rebel, that they’re just complaining; they don’t realise that there are people who need protection and support (R4).

An interviewee described the nightmare that ensued when she, on the advice of social services, had been forced to flee frantically with her children and, after that lived in hiding for several years. Her children had suffered because of their escape and could not handle constantly changing towns and schools. She felt powerless because she experienced that social workers did not have the knowledge to assess and understand her and her children’s situation, and she lacked long-term planning:

A woman and child come and need help. They can’t just place them and say goodbye (R9).

Breaking away from the family and escaping was a tremendous mental strain. Some women had experiences of less good family home placements. Unwelcoming or emotionally cold foster families were experienced as part of a desperate stay fraught with loneliness and alienation:

Social services may think that the most important thing is that your basic physical needs are covered, like in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but I’d rather be in a refugee camp with people I love and with people who love me than have everything and yet nothing (R4).

Theme 3: Being cared for and offered a supportive network

One woman said that the decision to contact social services also meant breaking off family ties, and she had then been excluded from the community. This grieving process had to be planned: ‘Because you know that you will lose a lot’ (R4). Cherished family members may, for example, never be seen again. Some women talk about feelings of guilt because they have brought shame upon the family. They described how family members expressed both sadness and anger. For example, sad siblings or a crying father who, at the same time, failed to stop the oppression. Social workers had sometimes created a support network for the women, which was described as an action speaking of care. They had, for instance, assisted in establishing contacts with other women subject to HBV who were prepared to provide support: ‘She put me into contact with them. [This is] good when I’m unhappy, or when my family pressures me too much by phone. I ask my friend for advice then’ (R2).

Social services’ thoughtful considerations of safety and protection were regarded as kindness, contributing to feeling secure and showed the interviewed women that social workers understood their situations. One respondent had to go to the hospital after being assaulted by family members:

They [social services] arranged a room where nobody could see me and parked so that I could just hop out of the car and into the doctor’s examination room (R2).

Another woman described how she had already felt that her fears were taken seriously at her first contact with social services because she was asked decisive questions:

R5: Yes, they understand. It was natural … they started asking about my husband. I told them about the knives and assaults and being locked inside and prevented from seeing a doctor, so they understood everything (R5).

Another woman described her initial desperate need for protection:

I wanted to stuff myself into a jar with a lid and just sit there in the social worker’s office and feel safe (R10).

The same interviewee said that she was delighted with how she, with the assistance of social services, succeeded in building such a good life:

I’ve received all the help I needed. We [she and social services] are still sometimes in touch. I love them; they’re like angels, and they’re always there when I’m worried (R10).

Another woman described her gratitude for being placed in a foster family because it provided a safe platform to stand on in the creation of an independent life:

With this family, it feels like winning the lottery (R4).

Theme 4: Being limited by honour norms in public spaces

Most women also had experienced being subjected to honour-based norms and expectations even outside the family. Being allowed to ride a bike, go to the public swimming pool, refuse to wear a veil or want employment were all described as violations of the norm, which could lead to various punitive measures even from the surrounding community. Several women explained how social services neglected or adopted a passive attitude to everyday harassment and exposure to honour-based oppression, that is, when the oppressors were people from the community who followed traditions and norms related to standards of honour. A woman describes how her mother refuses to follow honour norms and that the mother tells her teenage children to dress as they want. The consequence was that other adults in the area often subjected the mother to abusive language.

My younger sisters and I refuse to wear the veil. We are exposed and constantly mocked by our "own" in school. Our brothers are mocked for not keeping us sisters in order (R3).

Other women described this as something one must learn to live with:

Social services can protect us from our men but not from our traditions (R5).

One woman said that she had learned how to swim at her sheltered housing, and she felt that this had helped her to control her anxiety and worry. After a while, men from her country of origin who adhered to standards of honour prohibited her from visiting the public swimming pool. Another woman said that she had been married off in her country of origin when she was fourteen. She reported living under threat and with the constant fear that her family in her country of origin was also under threat:

When I married, he [her husband] paid my dad a lot of money. He wants the money back, but my dad no longer has it.

She further said that people from her country of origin quickly found out that social services had helped her to divorce. She was being pressured, and one of the men told her: ‘You are [religious affiliation], and he is your husband; you have to return’ (R1).

Discussion

This study aimed to examine the circumstances that lead women exposed to HBV to seek help from social services, as well as their experiences of the support and relief offered by social services. The findings from the interviews with women exposed to HBV highlight the many ways in which various forms of abuse have marked their lives. Ultimately, it was about not being recognised as an individual with self-determination, but that also included being exposed to physical abuse, the risk of being isolated and living with the consequences of being constantly monitored. The motive for seeking help to leave the family was ultimately about trying to create a more unburdened life and escape restrictions and violence. In some cases, the escape from the family was due to a fear of being exposed to lethal violence. It appears that girls from a young age are expected to take responsibility for the family household and the family members that are part of it. Taking one's own initiative outside the family, for example, riding a bicycle, going to a public swimming hall or getting a job, was not allowed and could lead to correction and punishment.

In recent years, social services’ recognised jurisdiction to intervene and protect exposed individuals generates greater possibilities to act against family-based violence (Olsson and Bergman, 2021). At the same time, this possibility is not unproblematic in an honour context. The results show that contact with authorities, particularly in family matters, is regarded as a significant contravention of standards of honour, which in several cases had led to severe threats being levelled at the women.

Regarding the women’s experience of support and help from social services, it should be emphasised that most women were satisfied with the support they had received from social services over time. Nevertheless, they also described experiences of non-recognition. The concepts of recognition, or being denied recognition, are discussed by the social philosopher Axel Honneth. Honneth (2007) means that the self-respect of individuals or groups depends on others’ recognition of their rights and capabilities. The struggle for recognition concerns whether individuals or groups receive recognition from society, for instance, in terms of love, social- and legal rights and solidarity.

When the women described experiences of not being understood or not recognised, it was about being rejected or treated passively. For example, having to wait a long time to get in touch with a social worker, or it seemed easier to get help from social services as a minor than as an adult, or when a young exposed woman is forced to sit in a meeting with her parents and explain herself. This parenting focus is not unusual because social services have been accused of incompetence when maintaining a traditional family approach. Such an approach gives parents the prerogative of formulating problems, which could deny young victims of violence legal protection and lead to an increase in serious violence (Schlytter and Linell, 2010; Wikström and Ghazinour, 2010; Heimer et al., 2018). Furthermore, the children’s needs seemed to be overlooked when mothers with children fled from families where standards of honour were followed.

Likewise, the results show that the initiation of a forced marriage also involved the prospective husband paying a so-called bride price, in this case, to the bride’s father. The authorities who encounter people who are under duress on the subject of financial transactions need to make two kinds of considerations. First, in the event of a divorce, social services and the police need to carry out risk assessments that pay particular attention to the risk of future violence, as the husband or his family will probably reclaim the bride price. Secondly, to prevent the victims from not being recognised, these authorities need to make careful considerations about whether the case can also be related to human trafficking (Olsson et al., 2022).

Finally, another form of non-recognition was when the women were offered family home placements that did not give them access to supportive and empathetic relationships. Being in an exposed position and being granted half-hearted help can produce overwhelming feelings of vulnerability. Therefore, interventions that do not cover the need for support can be risky because previous research has shown that vulnerable girls and women can lose motivation and determination and return home (Wikström and Ghazinour, 2010).

Being taken care of seemed to be about the extent to which the social worker had enough knowledge to understand what needed to be dealt with about protection and support. The result showed that it was valuable support to have access to other young women in the same situation. Similarly, research indicates that support from women with similar experiences strengthened their ability to handle life difficulties (Shanthakumari et al., 2014).

Experiences that social workers have enough knowledge to make well-thought-out security assessments contributed to creating security. Successful placements in supportive housing not only contributed to gaining access to a platform to build a new and better life. Previous interviews with women exposed to honour violence showed that supportive housing also reduced the experience of having a preoccupied social worker (Olsson et al., 2022). One lesson is that social services (in case of staff turnover or high workload) should be careful to routinely establish well-thought-out risk management and treatment plans. These plans can prevent organisational weaknesses that could adversely affect the client Olsson et al. (2023).

This study shows that most women have experiences of being exposed to and limited by standards of honour even outside the family sphere. Feeling rejected by the social services was, in some cases, referred to as an experience that the organisation did not pay attention to the fact that women could feel limited when honour norms occurred in the public local environment, for example, in public schools or in SFI. Other women state that despite having received help from social services, they are at the same time forced to continue a limited life. For example, when the woman was advised not to be in public environments or to be ordered to return to the husband after divorce. Furthermore, it was about having expectations of oneself to dress according to tradition. Other experiences were about being mocked as a brother for not controlling his female family members or being bullied as a mother for allowing her children to live in a Western way.

Several factors contribute to girls and women from honour-contextual environments exhibiting particular vulnerability. Cater and Sjögren (2016) found that exposure to obedience-demanding violence in childhood results in children constantly having to adapt to and heed reprimands. This type of subjection to violence can negatively affect the possibility of developing one’s inner moral sense and, thereby, a coherent, separate personality with the right to one’s thoughts and feelings.

Moreover, most of the interviewed women are still in the process of integrating and are struggling to be a well-functioning society member. Arriving in a new country involves introducing a new culture and society, and past experiences must be integrated with the present and future (SBU, 2018). While this process is ongoing, these women are also involved in a struggle for autonomy and escaping HBV, all while losing access to their primary relations. In connection with migration, psychological transition processes are characterised by increased vulnerability, leading to greater exposure (Meleis et al., 2000; Kralik et al., 2005). These significant vulnerability factors must be managed and heeded by social services since such particular vulnerability affects the women’s psychological preparedness to establish free, independent lives successfully.

At the same time, previous literature has discussed the risk of reinforcing stereotypes of women subjected to violence and abuse as vulnerable, helpless victims. In accordance with Randall (2004), it should be remembered that these women are actively engaged in finding strategies for survival and creating resilience against HBV (Randall, 2004). Fineman (2019) highlights the risks of creating a unique legal identity that classifies vulnerable groups as needing protection and lacking capacity. From a life course perspective, all humans are vulnerable, but the privileged can manage that vulnerability more easily. She advocates a responsive and just society, which makes visible and supports the vulnerable individuals’ collective success in creating resilience (Fineman, 2019, p. 368).

Conclusion

Although this article comprised a limited number of participants, the knowledge contribution should not be diminished. The study’s practical implications can be summarised as follows: first, there are significant differences in a woman’s need for support, depending on whether there are children involved or whether she arrived in Sweden as a child with her family or later in life as an asylum seeker. Likewise, age appeared to influence the possibility of support (minor or adult). Secondly, social services need to pay more attention to the threats that ensue after divorce, for example, when repayment of a bride price exists. Thirdly, children’s perspectives must be better considered, for example, when social services neglected or failed to protect a small child when the mother sought help to divorce, or when long-term isolation in various sheltered housing led to experiences of powerlessness and the failure to adopt a child’s perspective. Likewise, in cases where professionals try to arrange meetings with an exposed girl and her parents. Fourthly, this study shows that women or families that reject standards of honour are subject to systematic harassment in public by people aiming to coerce them into adapting to and following standards of honour. When involved authorities do not recognise their exposure to violence, the women describe their social and judicial position as one of powerlessness. Fifthly, the women described the importance of being met with understanding and being cared for and that fears were taken seriously. It created feelings of security in the break-up process and provided opportunities for a free and independent life. Sixth, the interviewed women showed a great need to speak about the violence and their exposure. Professionals should be alert to the healing power of narration that may contribute to processing and recovery. Seventh, HBV affects whole families and has a divisive effect on relations between adults and children, leading to tragic separations. Many families where standards of honour exist live with great psychological, social and financial stress. Society needs to pay better attention to the health conditions and needs of migrants, for example, through support networks and easily accessible parent training. Staff with conflict mediation training can be valuable to offer parents when a child has chosen to leave the family.

The rigour of the study

It is not impossible to generalise the results based on such a small sample. Instead, readers should decide whether results may be transferred to other similar contexts. Since the study population is small, and participants additionally live under real threat, there is the potential risk of revealing their identities through detailed descriptions. This poses a methodological problem since qualitative studies often strive to contribute ‘thick’ contextual descriptions. Dependability was enhanced as the same interviewer conducted and transcribed all interviews, and an interview guide with open-ended questions was used. Quotations from the interviews verify the confirmability of the four main themes. The fact that only one researcher was involved in the data analysis is a limitation. However, the work is characterised by considering the risk of taking things for granted and avoiding preconceived notions. To confirm credibility, a panel comprising four young women with experience living with HBV has contributed good advice throughout the research process. Another limitation is the lack of gender balance. The study would have contributed more knowledge if some young men had participated. In Sweden, it is highly unusual for boys or men subject to HBV to seek help or be identified via reports of concern. There are many reasons for the absence of men. Men are overlooked when it comes to state intervention for male victims, and they may find it challenging to come forward, although research shows that strict patriarchal norms have an oppressive influence on their lives.

Acknowledgements

I express my warmest thanks to all the participants who generously and courageously shared their stories.

Funding

This study was financed by a research grant awarded to the author by fifteen rural municipalities (social work agencies) in a county in mid-Sweden striving to counteract HBV.

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no potential conflicts of interest concerning this article’s research, authorship or publication.

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