Name the abuse
Record the actual behaviour: threats, coercion, surveillance, document control, forced travel, sexual or physical violence, and the involvement of others. Do not reduce the case to a vague cultural label.
Aneeta Prem
Why I Say
Dishonour Abuse
Abuse does not become honourable because a family or community approves of it. Freedom Charity has challenged the language of “honour” for many years. In evidence to Parliament in 2013, I used the terms “dishonour violence” and “dishonour crime”; today we use and campaign for Dishonour Abuse because responsibility belongs with those who control, threaten, injure or silence another person.
Official bodies commonly use the term “honour-based abuse”. Freedom Charity uses Dishonour Abuse as campaigning language while retaining official terminology where law, policy or safeguarding guidance requires precision.
Read Freedom Charity’s guidanceHonour-based abuse and violence
Official guidance in the UK commonly uses “honour-based abuse”. International material may also use “honor-based abuse” or “honor-based violence”. I use Dishonour Abuse as campaigning language to reject the perpetrator’s claimed justification: the dishonour belongs to the person who chooses abuse, never to the victim or survivor. Terminology and legal definitions vary by jurisdiction, so official wording is retained where legal or policy precision requires it.
Forced marriage · Female genital mutilation (FGM) · UK legal analysis
The victim has not brought dishonour.
The person who chooses abuse has.
The argument
There Is No Honour
The official phrase “honour-based abuse” carries the perpetrator’s claimed justification inside the description of the harm. I believe that language should never imply that honour belongs beside threats, coercion or violence.
When a girl refuses FGM, a young person says no to a marriage, or someone chooses education, work, a partner or safety, they have not dishonoured anyone. The wrong lies with those who punish freedom and call that punishment duty, culture, faith, family loyalty or reputation.
There is no honour in controlling another person’s life.
Language and safeguarding
Why I reject the word honour
What official guidance calls honour-based abuse can involve coercion, intimidation, threats or violence used to police behaviour that is said to affect family or community reputation. The underlying conduct may include controlling or coercive behaviour, stalking, assault, abduction, sexual violence and other criminal offences.
Dishonour Abuse may involve several people. One relative may threaten, another may monitor a phone, and someone else may hold a passport, arrange travel or report back to the wider family. This is why contacting relatives or attempting mediation without a proper risk assessment can increase danger.
Police, prosecutors and public bodies use “honour-based abuse” and related official terminology, so professionals need to recognise those terms in guidance and case records. Freedom Charity uses Dishonour Abuse in public campaigning because official terminology should not be mistaken for moral truth. In the House of Lords on 17 December 2025, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb referred to Freedom Charity’s position and quoted the words, “There is no honour in abuse.” I retain official terms where legal or policy precision requires them.
Read the Crown Prosecution Service guidanceA safeguarding test
What professionals should do
Cultural sensitivity must never become professional silence.
Do not contact the family
Trying to mediate or seek reassurance can expose a disclosure and increase the danger. Safety must come before family agreement.
Act before the crisis
A child should not need to disappear from school, be taken abroad or suffer violence before professionals recognise the pattern and act.
Freedom Charity
Why I Speak
I co-founded Freedom Charity with Lord Toby Harris in 2009 because forced marriage, FGM and related abuse were still being hidden behind silence, shame and a fear of appearing culturally insensitive.
Freedom Charity has distributed the novels and accompanying safeguarding resources through schools and public education work. Independently recorded evidence of the books and education work is set out in the Evidence Index.
Working with children, families, schools, professionals, government and the media has shown me how easily warning signs are missed when the words are softened. My position is simple: the victim carries no dishonour, and public institutions must never repeat the perpetrator’s moral claim as though it were neutral.
Help and enquiries
Help, guidance and media enquiries
For journalists, researchers and public bodies, the Public Record links to Aneeta Prem MBE’s parliamentary, safeguarding, media and public-service work and the independent sources behind those records.
Safeguarding informationFreedom Charity guidanceSpecialist supportFreedom Charity helplineMedia and policyPress kit and enquiries
Read the source-linked Public RecordFGM: law, prevention and safeguardingForced marriage: law, help and safeguardingCall 999 if there is immediate danger.