The phrase "preserve honor" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe an effort to maintain integrity and moral standards in a particular situation. For example, "Although it was difficult, she chose to preserve her honor and refuse the offer."
Along those lines, Footnote.com, acquired by Ancestry.com last year, introduced the I Remember Facebook application for its registered users in 2009 to "preserve, honor and share the memories of anyone who influenced your life," including family, friends, teachers, coaches, and fallen soldiers.
The event honored the writers with performances by Rosanne Cash, Jon Bon Jovi, Martina McBride, Miguel and others, each working to further the hall's stated goal to "preserve, honor and celebrate the legacy of the great songwriters whose work has enriched the world's culture".
There is also a Levantine tinge to negotiating: everything is up for bargaining, loyalty to family and clan can trump merit and efficiency, and preserving honor may be more important than tangible results.
In many ways, it is everything that comes after that night by the river that makes the documentary so chilling: how a girl battles a community that is obsessed with preserving honor and that sympathizes with her father, even though he intended to kill his daughter.
Essentially, we become our own documentarians and archivists in order to impose meaning on daily life, to show that we are honoring moments with the seriousness we are told they are supposed to possess, and to preserve that honor for posterity.
I was mutilated when I was a week old, to supposedly preserve my honor by ensuring my chastity until marriage.
"America is not a country which needs to punish its dissenters to preserve its honor," she said.
In addition, girls who have been raped or molested are quickly married off to the rapist or any other man to preserve family honor, the report noted.
"Are you going to trade the lives of a number of people because you want to preserve your honor?" he asked, his voice dripping with contempt.
Moreover, in some Sudanese tribes, widows must endure having their vaginas sewn shut to preserve their honor, but that is not true of her Zaghawa tribe.
He fought to retain his playing time and fought to get paid in full and, when the team suspended him, fought to preserve his honor and his paycheck.
