Deadly Honor: Protecting Family Sexuality and Legacy to the Death

Deadly Honor: Protecting Family Sexuality and Legacy to the Death

An AUS Center for Creative Change “Global Issues and Perspectives” presentation at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, in room 100. Free and open to the public.

Leyla Welkin, Ph.D. (M.A. Psychology ‘90), a clinical cross-cultural psychologist, founded the Pomegranate Connection Program in Ankara, Turkey, in 2008. Partnering with Turkish organizations, she conducts research and provides training and consultation on sexual and family violence throughout Turkey.

In societies where individual people consider themselves first and foremost to be members of families, clans, tribes or even nations, heritage, legacy, sexuality and honor have deep meanings. In Turkey, honor, or namus, is a powerful collective issue tied up with gender and sexuality.

In her presentation and discussion, Welkin explores how this concept of honor complicates sexual and family violence both for perpetrators and for victims. She describes this as a cultural and psychological issue, not fundamentally religious or Muslim, and she discusses ways to encourage cultural change balancing invdividual rights with social responsibility.