Attitudes of Arab Israeli students towards honour killings

Honour killings are a familiar phenomenon in the Arab and Muslim world, including Arab and Muslim populations living in Western countries. Communities of Arabs and Muslims living in Western countries are influenced by the values of two cultures: the traditional-patriarchal Arab culture and the modern-liberal Western one. The purpose of the present study was to examine the attitudes of Arab Israeli students, who live in two different cultures, towards killing to uphold family honour. A structured quantitative questionnaire, which examines attitudes towards honour killing in various situations, was administered to a sample of 156 Arab Israeli students, 77 men and 79 women, with a mean age of 24.4 (SD = 5.5). The findings show that most participants oppose murder to uphold family honour. The attitudes towards murder, however, vary according to participant gender, and the characteristics of the event: the identity of the man with whom the woman met, the question of sexual relations, and the degree of closeness between the man and the woman. The research findings are explained with reference to socio-cultural and moral values. The importance of the study and its application are described.