Witnessing, grieving, and remembering: Letters of resistance, love, and reclamation from daughters of izzat

Abstract

This article challenges public and private constructions of honour-related violence as they impact second-generation South Asian women and girls in Canada. While much has been written about the victims of honour killings, including high profile cases of young women killed by their families in Canada, considerably less attention and space has been given to second-generation South Asian Canadian women and girl’s stories of survivance and resistance against honour-based violence (HBV). This paper moves towards storying processes of grieving and of witnessing public stories of HBV, and documents a collective writing process I undertook in collaboration with survivors of HBV. We shared narratives of grief and pain, and the power of collective storywork. The paper includes two letters that speak to the context in which second-generation South Asian women are embodying resistance and reclamation, and witnessing stories of grief, loss, love, and acceptance.

Keywords:

• honour based violence,
• witnesse,
• survivance,
• action based research