NCJ Number
188216
Date Published
2000
Length
47 pages
Annotation
This booklet examines three practices of discrimination against the girl child--infanticide and selective abortion, female genital cutting, and honor killing.
Abstract
The booklet details the economic, cultural, and religious reasons given by those who perform and try to justify these acts, attempts to understand the impact of these practices on girls and their societies, why the practices persist, and how they may be successfully challenged. Female infanticide may occur as the deliberate murder of a female infant or young girl child or as the result of neglect. Selective abortion appears to be increasing as a result of new sex-detecting, prenatal technologies. Female genital cutting is an ancient cultural tradition practiced in many countries, primarily in Africa, that involves removal of part or all of a girl's healthy exterior sex organs. Honor killing is the practice of killing girls and women who are perceived to have defiled their families' honor by allegedly engaging in sexual activity or other improprieties before marriage or outside of marriage. The booklet emphasizes the importance of trying to change these practices and of protecting girl children's full complement of human rights through legitimate courts of law and programs of community education. Figures, notes, bibliography, resources