Often literally translated as "virtue", it is now more popularly used in a strong gender-specific context of relations within a family described in terms of honor, attention, respect/respectability, and modesty.
The Turkish language has multiple words to describe related concepts of honor including namus, onur and şeref.
The official definition of namus from the dictionary Foundation of Turkish Language is "the attachment of a society to moral rules".
Although Kemalism has contributed to the rapid modernization of the country in many aspects, traditional sexual mores have proven to be resilient.
Even those families who encouraged their daughters to pursue professional careers as teachers, doctors or lawyers maintained the expectation that these women would continue to conduct themselves as "dedicated mothers, and modest housewives", which are important societal ideals.
[9] The namus of an entire family is violated if, for example, an adult daughter is not dressed "appropriately", or if they tolerate a sexual offense without reaction.
If a woman or a man transgresses important moral and sexual norms (a wife, sisters, daughters, brothers, uncles), their common namus is lost in the eyes of the community, following the mechanism of associative stigmatization.
[13] While the social mechanism of stigma by association is common all over the world, honour killings occur in some regions in the Middle East and adjacent areas.
When a family learns that a new female child is expected sex-selective abortion or infanticide may occur, although these are not instances of honour killing but of frustration of not being able to keep up with societal ideals.
Abdullah Goran (1904–1962), the modern Kurdish poet, condemned honour killing in his poem "Berde-nûsêk" ("A Tomb-Stone").