Abstract

Finally, the atrocity of gendercide—the murder and mutilation of victims selected by sex—is getting prominent attention in the press. Through feminist online activism, but more prominently through the efforts of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff (in his new book Half the Sky, written with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, and in his New York Times column), a socially embedded and systematic assault on women and girls in much of the world has been brought to public consciousness. The crimes at issue range from the killing of girls and women—often by their fathers, brothers, or male cousins, acting for the "honor" of the family—to the trafficking of women as sex slaves and to their forced recruitment as suicide bombers. will focus in this article on honor killing because the act is so vile, Further, the concept is difficult to dislodge.

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