The book “At 20 it starts to rot” is based on the interviews with young women who tell their stories about honour violence, forced marriages and cultural crocks. Often there is a perception that honour violence is a phenomenon that is connected only to newly arrived refugees. The interviewed girls come from the families who have been living in Sweden for up to 20 years. Most of the children have grown up, or were born, in Sweden.
Forced marriage is still a common occurrence within parts of the Romany group. Segregation within one’s group, religious or ethnic, combined with more isolation increases the problem but is not, as it is sometimes considered, the reason for it. It cannot be called an integration problem in a society where honour norms are the generally prevailing.
The book is recommended as a methodological tool for starting the discussions in focus groups on the issues of honour related violence and intercultural competence. Group dynamics is important so the number of participants should not exceed 10 persons and not be less than 4-5 persons.
