A case study of a girl who acts in resistance towards her family’s honour coded norms and values

This study concerns girls and young women in Sweden who live in communities and families regulated by norms and values emphasizing honour. The ambition is to understand the terms for possible change when girls refuse to incorporate themselves in a patriarchal structure which subjects women. I study this through the narrative of one girl’s story. Thus this is a qualitative case study (Merriam 1994). The study’s comprehensive aim is to illuminate the particular girl’s conditions, considering both surrounding circumstances and terms for transgressional actions and choices. The empirical base of the case study is qualitative interviews with the girl and a voluntary worker (who supported the girl as she proceeded through “acts of resistance”) carried out in the years of 2001 and 2002. The results offered in this case study are seen as perspectives and information attached in a context (Patton1980:283). The results could be used as workable hypothesis (Cronbach 1975:124) in future research and the processes described may also indicate what ought to be done or what should be avoided in practice as social workers and others come across these girls (cf. Olson in Hoaglin et.al.1982). The study shows that responsive reactions on acts of resistance can sometimes be understood trough the aspects of the parental- child relationship and not only through values emphasizing honour. In understanding the context it is also important to consider the aspect of how the family regard the girl and that the dimension of existence have terms for who is included and who is excluded in the family entity. The analysis of the girl’s actions and contemplations has illuminated experiences of negotiation and negotiations as a frequently used strategy. Under certain circumstances eagerness to please the family’s wishes may lead to renounce of own needs and withdrawal from acts of resistance. I have found some prominent “patterns” in the story about this girl. Firstly I would like to accent that the conditions determining the outcome of the girl’s processes not only are terms for possible actions and behaviour. The dimension of existence (in the story visible through norms, valuation of gender and the emphasizing of honour)should also be included as a condition. Secondly I would like to accentuate that she was able to negotiate the terms of living within this system, by finding “allies” within the normative system (the community regulated by norms and values emphasizing honour). However, changing the frames of description(by intervening in the structure that defines her) required the support from allies outside the normative system