Interrogating the concept of "harmful cultural practices"

In this chapter we critically reflect on the factors that impact on how HCPs emerge and re-emerge in different contexts. We will consider this topic in two main ways; firstly by looking at how practices are sustained and then secondly through an analysis of the competing discourses emergent around them. In order to achieve these aims we present a number of frames that can be used to unpack and understand in-depth the factors and dimensions that weave together maintaining HCPs. In particular the transnational aspect of HCPs has become increasingly significant; why is it that diaspora communities continue to observe practices post migration even though they are regarded by the wider society (and by many from within) as harmful or violent? What discourses have risen in response to HCPs’ continued even increasing presence within secular western states? In turn what impact have these responsive discourses had on and for resistant voices within practicing communities?