[Commlist] CFC: Framed Lives and Screened Deaths. Honour Crimes in World Cinema and Television

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*Call for Chapters*

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*Edited Volume*

**

*Flavia Laviosa*

*Wellesley College*

*Book title:* /Framed Lives and Screened Deaths. Honour Crimes in World 
Cinema and Television/

*Editor:* Flavia Laviosa

*Publisher:* Intellect & Chicago UP

*Overview*

Over the past 100 years, so-called ‘honour crimes’ (e.g. killings, acid 
attacks, forced and disguised suicides) have increasingly captured the 
attention of international cinema and media. These crimes are committed 
by a close male family member against women who are rape victims, are 
suspected or accused of having had premarital sex, or believed to have 
committed adultery, and are justified as a means of restoring the family 
honour purportedly ruined by the woman’s actions.

An Amnesty International statement explains:


The mere perception that a woman has contravened the code of sexual 
behavior damages honour. The regime of honour is unforgiving: women on 
whom suspicion has fallen are not given an opportunity to defend 
themselves, and family members have no socially acceptable alternative 
but to remove the stain on their honour by attacking the woman.

(Amnesty International: Broken bodies, shattered minds - Torture and 
ill-treatment of women, Report, 6 March 2001)

Honour-based violence resides within the framework of patrilinearfamily 
structures, communities and societies. The justification for the 
perpetration of violence is the protection of a social construction**of 
‘honour’ as a value system, norm or tradition. The term covers a 
spectrum of behaviours involving power, control, domination and 
intimidation.


Every year, in countries across the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, some South 
and Central Asian countries, Latin America, East Africa and several 
European nations, thousands of women who reject tribal traditions, 
refuse forced marriages, marry according to their will or live 
independently, are murdered by their family members. Women who have 
brought ‘shame’ to the family's ‘honour’ are sentenced to death by 
family courts. Under special laws, the killers are given light 
sentences, sometimes with little or no jail time at all. The 
perpetrators often defend their act of murder by referencing their 
traditional practices and beliefs.


The injustice inherent in this prevalent, rarely denounced and leniently 
punished practice has surfaced in discussion about human rights, 
alerting filmmakers worldwide to this pressing issue. These directors 
actively denounce honour crimes, raising public awareness of both the 
victims and perpetrators and exploring the stories of communities marked 
by gender inequality and the patriarchal notion of honour as it 
permeates Western nations.


Honour killings are a persistent phenomenon in integrated democracies, 
where the worldviews of multiple generations collide. When families 
migrate to new countries, they bring with them their traditional honour 
codes and forms of punishment for women who are deemed to have tarnished 
their family’s reputation. These practices inevitably cause 
intercultural and intergenerational clashes when young women, born 
and/or raised in the multi-religious and multicultural host country, 
aspire to education and career independence beyond the family, seek the 
freedom to socialize with other groups and wish to choose their own partner.


The range of documentaries, feature and short films and TV dramas that 
draw on honor crimes has expanded in the past 25 years as cases are 
reported more regularly around the world. Some notable examples include 
the feature /When We Leave /(Aladag 2010), the documentary /Two Sides of 
the Moon/(Gould 2010) and the docufilm /A Regular Woman/(Horrmann 2019), 
all on the case of Hatun Aynur Sürücü (Turkey 1982 – Berlin 2005); the 
documentary /Banaz A Love Story/(Khan 2012) and the TV miniseries 
/Honour /(Laxton 2020), both on the case of Banaz Mahmod (Iraqi 
Kurdistan 1985 - London 2006); the short documentary /Saving 
Faces/(Junge and Obaid-Chinoy 2011) and the documentary /A Girl in the 
River/(Obaid-Chinoy 2015), both Oscar recipients; and more recently, the 
documentary /@italiangirl-La storia di Saman//Abbas/(Veronese and Bedini 
2024) on the case of Saman Abbas (Pakistan 2003 – Novellara [Reggio 
Emilia] 2021). The filmmakers of these works clearly felt a 
responsibility to retell the compelling stories of the struggle for 
social  and cultural integration in Western communities, while 
maintaining a respectful attitude towards the victims and avoiding the 
use of graphic images or dramatizing the events. Their films were 
expressions of human rights activism, giving voice to the marginalized 
as they chronicle the tragedy of the murdered women and their families. 
Both films and television series also problematized the complex family 
ties and emotions involved.


It is also crucial to address the fact that perpetrators of the killings 
are themselves victims of social beliefs and cultural traditions as 
their families put the burden and pressure of murder onto them. “Honour 
killing is a tragedy in which fathers and brothers kill their most 
beloved, their daughters and sisters […] Here, affection and brutality 
coexist in conflict and unity” (Shahrzad Mojab 2002 cited in Diane King 
2008:320). Therefore, “Honour killings cause a double tragedy for 
families. The girls lie in the cemetery while the boys or men are thrown 
into prison” (Ayşe Önal 2008:255), as poignantly portrayed in the 
feature films /Land Gold Women/(Hari 2009), set in the United Kingdom, 
and /Cold Sigh/(Sedigh 2023), set in Iran. On the other hand, if a man 
chooses not to kill, he is belittled and humiliated by his community, as 
dramatically represented in the documentary /Maria’s Grotto/(Khoury 
2007) set in the West Bank.

This edited volume seeks to produce original, cutting-edge scholarship 
on the vast filmography (covering about 100 years with the first film in 
1927 set in China, /Mr. Wu/ by William Nigh, and the second in 1928 set 
in Ireland: /Hangman’s House/ by John Ford) that addresses the global 
practice of honour crimes. Directors from Asia, Australasia, Europe, the 
Middle East, North Africa and North and South America bring distinctive 
cultural perspectives to theexpanding spectrum of audiovisual 
representations through diverse narrative styles.

However, the fast-growing production of films on the topic also raises 
some troubling considerations. In some productions, the representations 
of honour crimes, whether based on real cases or fictionalized events, 
appear to have evolved into a new /genre/,//comprising captivating 
dramas, crime and detective stories, thrillers and a sort of new /noir/. 
These depictions exploit the phenomenon and its actors, creating new 
villains and heroes, victims and saviours, turning honour crimes into a 
spectacle for world audiences. The horror of these tragedies has become 
the /source /of /dark/ home entertainment for insatiable or desensitized 
crime story viewers.

Alongside highlighting the works of individual filmmakers who expose 
honour crimes, this volume seeks to promote a transnational and 
transcultural discussion of this phenomenon. Some preliminary works have 
paved the way for a multi-disciplinary dialogue concerning audiovisual 
representations of honour crimes (Laviosa 2010, 2012, 2015; Toumarkine 
2011; Berghahn 2013; Böcking 2014; Pratt 2014). The book aims to gather 
scholarly work stemming from theoretical frameworks in anthropology, 
sociology, criminology, psychology and law, while producing new research 
across disciplines such as the humanities, gender studies, film and 
media studies and cultural studies. The objectives are to contextualize 
honour crimes; understand the historical and cultural reasons motivating 
this phenomenon; examine the various culturally specific ways these 
crimes are performed; and explore and discuss how they are featured in 
films, documentaries and television series.

The underlying thesis of this edited volume will stress how cinema and 
television serve as sites of resistance against the cultural forces that 
constrain female sexuality and imagine it as a battleground for family 
honour, while also probing how some contemporary audiovisual productions 
may be said to exploit and spectacularize this tragic phenomenon.

*Call for Contributions*

We invite scholars, researchers and practitioners to contribute original 
chapters that critically explore the intersection of multiple 
disciplines.  Submissions should offer fresh theoretical insights or 
empirically grounded analyses that engage with how honour crimes are 
represented in international cinema and television, particularly in the 
contexts of family and community interactions. Contributions may include 
critical essays, case studies, interviews or data-driven research. We 
particularly welcome work that addresses the critical role played by the 
media considering the resurgence of new cases and their emotional, 
ethical and relational implications. While the volume takes a global 
perspective, we strongly encourage submissions that reflect diverse 
cultural, regional and contextual experiences.**

Authors are welcome to discuss films or TV series of their choice, or 
select from the list of international productions provided in the 
Appendix, available *here 
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_sgAg6lcfHwGUvcPcrV1XDdKXe405wb7JIuVLR4BOTw/edit?usp=sharing>.*

***Submission Process *

Kindly submit an abstract of 300 words (maximum 3 films), along with a 
brief biography of no more than 150 words, highlighting your background, 
expertise and experience. Please ensure that your abstract includes a 
concise introduction, objectives, methodology and contributions to both 
academic knowledge and practical application.

*Deadlines*

·Abstract Submission Deadline:  2 July 2025

·Notification of Acceptance:  30 July 2025

·Deadline for submission of first draft:  30 October 2025

·Full Chapter Submission Deadline:  15 December 2025

Chapter length should be *8,000 words*, inclusive of references. All 
submissions must adhere to academic standards of originality, rigor, and 
citation. Images will be included and published in black and white only.

*Contact information*

Please send your submissions and any inquiries to Flavia Laviosa at 
(flaviosa /at/ wellesley.edu) <mailto:(flaviosa /at/ wellesley.edu)>

**

*References*

Berghahn, Daniela (2013), “/When We Leave/ – But Fail to Leave the 
Traditions of the Homeland Behind …” in Chap. ‘Gender, Generation and 
the Production of Locality’, in /Far-flung Families in Film: The 
Diasporic Family in/ /Contemporary European Cinema/, Edinburgh: 
Edinburgh University Press, pp. 129-134.


Böcking, Cordula (2014), “Beyond binary identity politics? Ethnic, 
cultural and gendered othering in Feo Aladağ’s /Die Fremde/”, /Studies 
in European Cinema/,//11:3, pp. 212–22.//

King, E. Diane (2008), “The Personal is Patrilinear: /Namus/ as 
Sovereignty”, /Identities: Global Studies in Cultures and Powers/, 15, 
pp.  317-342.

Laviosa, Flavia (2010), “‘Death is the fairest cover for her shame’: 
Framing Honour Killings” in Flavia Laviosa (ed.) /Visions of Struggle in 
Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean/, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 
pp. 185-212.

Laviosa, Flavia (2012), “Screening honour killings in western 
countries”. Special Issue of /Libellula/,//Guest Editor Anna Cafaro, 
Nov. pp. 41-52.//

Laviosa, Flavia (2015), “Killing in the name of love. Representations of 
violence against women in RAI”, /Journalism Media and Cultural Studies 
Journal/, Special Issue on Italian Cultural Studies, Guest Editor 
Floriana Bernardi, December.

Önal, Ayşe (2008), /Honour Killing. Stories of Men Who Killed/, London: 
SAQI Books.

Pratt Ewing, Katherine (2014), “From German Bust Stop to Academy Award 
Nomination. The Honour Killing as Simulacrum”, in Aili Mari Tripp, Myra 
Marx Ferree, and Christina Ewig (eds.), /Gender, Violence and Human 
Security: Critical Feminist Perspectives/ New York: NYU Press, pp. 163-188.

Toumarkine, Doris (2011), “Bound by family: Feo Aladag directs searing 
drama of Turkish wife's struggle against oppressive traditions”, /Film 
Journal International/,**114: 2 (Feb.) p.16.

Flavia Laviosa is Senior Lecturer in the Department of French, 
Francophone and Italian Studies at Wellesley College.Her research 
interests are in Italian women filmmakers and representations of 
violence against women in world cinema. She is the founder and 
Editor-in-Chief of the /Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies/ and 
the book series /Trajectories/. She has also guest-edited the Special 
Issue of /Studies in European Cinema/, ‘Cinematic Journeys of Italian 
Women Directors’ (8:2, 2011), and edited the volume /Visions of Struggle 
in Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean /(Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).



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