Mehdizadeh, S. (2016, September 19). Honour Based Violence: Complex issue needs greater awareness. RCMP Gazette, 78(2). https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/gazette/honour-based-violence 

This article featured in the Gazette magazine outlines what the RCMP can do in order to protect individuals from honour crimes in Canada, such as educating themselves about honour crimes, implementing preventative measures, and investigating honour crimes through a culture sensitive approach in response to the growing immigrant population. The article also indicates that the lack of reporting relating to honour crimes poses a challenge to the police. The lack of underreporting can be due to multiple factors such as the lack of trust in the police system, linguistic barriers, and fear of negative stigma. In addition, an analysis of the term “honour” and the complexities regarding honour crimes are indicated. Lastly, recommendations to address honour crimes such as creating outreach programs to build relationships between police and immigrant communities, ensuring bias-free services, and ensuring police officers are informed about honour crimes in order to deal with it in ways that do not cause more harm.

The Teaching Against Islamophobia resources were developed with funding support from the Law Foundation of BC, and the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at SFU.