Germaine Tillion’s classic work of ethnology My Cousin, My Husband related so-called “honor”-based violence (HBV) to the institution of cousin marriage as a response to women’s entitlement to inheritance within the Greater Mediterranean Region. This article will scrutinize Tillion’s position using original survey data gathered in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, finding that although there is a correlation between HBV and cousin marriage, Tillion’s association of this with inheritance laws is inadequate. An alternative position is proposed, in which the relationship between HBV and cousin marriage is situated in coercion around marriage, intergenerational tensions, and in-group exclusivity, exacerbated by the contemporary politics of nationalist neopatrimonialism and an economy based in oil rentierism.
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