GERMANY Refusing to control sisters and female relatives demands great courage for boys growing up in honour-related cultures. By empowering young people and encouraging them to distance themselves from honour oppression, the new project Heroes in Germany are educating boys to become positive role models.

This fall, six boys between 17 and 19 years will be visiting schools in Berlin to discuss equality and honour oppression. The goal is to compel young people to think about oppression and what it means to limiting the freedom of sisters and female relatives in the name of honour.

– A lot of girls are being controlled and discriminated against, for example by not having the possibility to choose their education or profession, or by being forced into marriage. Many boys are suffering as well, and are not given the freedom to choose a wife or a job. Very often, boys are forced to control their sisters, says Anna Rinder von Beckerath.

SWEDISH MANAGER

Anna Rinder von Beckerath is managing a project called Heroes, and was also founder of the original Swedish program at Fryshuset in Stockholm. Fryshuset has been running a program called “Elektra” for six years, financed partly by Childhood, focusing on girls'''' empowerment and honour-related discrimination.

The idea around Heroes was born when Childhood invited Anna Rinder von Beckerath to a conference with the German organisation Strohhalm, which became interested in the Swedish concept and decided to start up a similar project in Germany. With Anna Rinder von Beckerath as project manager and funding from Childhood, Heroes was started last fall.

SIX FRIENDS PARTICIPATE

But finding boys who wanted to participate in the project took some time. It takes both courage and awareness of honour-related problems and oppression, Anna Rinder von Beckerath points out, to make the decision to actively denounce it. The six boys who soon are going to visit schools to hold workshops are a group of friends, all of them with Turkish background. Right now, two male social workers are preparing the boys for their task. They have been meeting regularly for several months to discuss themes like honour oppression, human rights, democracy, equality between men and women, religion, culture and racism.

– For two weeks we tried do define “honour”, but nobody could! The boys can now say that they really don''''t know what honour means, says Ahmad Mansour at Heroes.

What he means is that the boys are becoming aware of why honour is so important to so many when it seems to be based on rules and habits that are not easily explained or defined.

– We want to make them think and look at these matters in a new perspective, which is a huge challenge for them, Ahmad adds.

WORSE IN GERMANY

When Ahmad moved to Germany from Israel 4,5 years ago, he was chocked when he realised how strong the honour culture was in Berlin.

– I thought I left those problems in Israel, but it''''s even worse here. I never realised that such oppression and discrimination existed in Germany.

The boys acting as role models will meet with friends their own age in the school and with similar cultural backgrounds, which makes it very important to prepare them well. The social pressure from friends is strong and these boys have a challenging task ahead of them, Ahmad Mansour points out.

LITTLE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HONOUR CULTURE

Heroes is going to have a large influence in Germany, Ahmad Mansour predicts. Recently, as he visited a school, a teacher was incredibly grateful because he discussed honour oppression with her students.

– A lot of teachers are afraid. They think they don''''t respect Islam if they have doubts about the honour culture. But it''''s not about religion, it''''s about a view on morals, more than anything, he concludes, smiling with confidence as he is trying to make a difference for both boys and girls.

Text: Maja Svenonius

Photo: Yilmaz Atmaca, Anna Rinder von Beckerath and Ahmad Mansour are running "Heroes" together with Dagmar Riedel-Breidenstein  (not in the picture).