In the Name of Action Against "Honour-Related" Violence

"Honour-related" violence and oppression has become an important issue for various social institutions in Sweden during the last decade. The school is one of these and has been awarded a particular responsibility to detect and take action against this violence. Aside from a few studies however, knowledge remains limited regarding how professionals in various institutions take measures against this violence. In this article I examine how the school's mission to combat "honour-related" violence and oppression has evolved into a practice permeated by national notions. With the support of empirical examples, I will show how efforts to tackle "honour-related" violence are based on ideas of "Swedish" values, national borders, and gender, and how these become tools for production of exclusion and inclusion. Attention is also given to how boys and girls who are brought together with an "honour cultural" background are assigned different positions in the "Swedish" community. The study is based on interviews with student welfare staff, participant observations on training days for school staff about "honour-related" violence, and document studies.