Violence to defend family honor on the rise in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is seeing an increase in violent incidents related to defending a family’s honor. Last year, the police handled 682 such cases, the National Police’s National Expertise Center for Honor-related Violence said to De Gelderlander.

In 2021, there were 628 honor-related violence cases, and in 2018 there were 529. According to the police, the upward trend in this type of violence is mainly related to the influx of migrants and refugees.

Over 20 percent of the honor-violence incidents in the past two years happened in the Dutch-Syrian community, the police told the newspaper. According to the police, that is logical, given the many people who fled the war in Syria in recent years. Before that, most cases happened in Turkish and Moroccan circles.

Honor-violence involves violent incidents to protect or restore the “sullied honor” of the family, for example, if a family member is accused of unchaste behavior by their partner or another family. Resistance to choosing a partner, extramarital relations, or opposition to following family rules can also spark these types of incidents.

The honor-violence incidents the police handled in recent years included threats, stalking, assault, forced marriage, abduction, and even manslaughter.