Female infanticide is the murder of female infants, often due to a preference for sons. Female genital cutting involves removing or altering female genitalia and is practiced in some cultures. Honor killings involve killing girls or women who are perceived to have dishonored their family. The document discusses these practices, providing examples like the cases of Lakshmi, Hannah, and Raina. It notes the discrimination, health impacts, and lack of legal consequences girls face regarding these human rights issues in places like India, Ethiopia, and Jordan.

1. Female Infanticide, Female Genital Cutting, Honor Killing

2. 
What is discrimination?

What examples of discrimination come to mind?

Does the Indian government provide equal
opportunities for men and women…and girls
and boys?

If the Indian government does provide equal
opportunity between sexes, how does it do so?

Is anyone familiar with the following words:
female infanticide, female genital cutting,
honor killing?

3. The Girl Child

Child: The Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC) defines a child as a person under
the age of 18. A girl child is thus a female
younger than 18 years of age

Discrimination: Treatment or consideration
based on class or category rather than
individual merit; partiality or prejudice.

Dowry: Money or property that a ride’s
family must give to the family of her husband
as a requirement of marriage.
words to know

4. The Girl Child
forms of discrimination

Female Infanticide: The murder of a female infant. It
occurs often as a deliberate murder or abandonment of
a young girl or infant.

Selective Abortion: Also called gender-selective
abortion, sex-selective abortion, or female feticideselective abortion. It involves the abortion of a fetus
because it is a girl. Many women from communities or
cultures with a preference for boys practice selective
abortion.

5. The Girl Child
forms of discrimination

Female Genital Cutting (FGC): The practice that involves
the removal or the alteration of the female genitalia. It
is a centuries-old practice found in many countries among
people from various religions and beliefs, most prevalent
in Africa.

Honor Killing: The practice of killing girls and women
who are perceived to have dishonored a family’s
reputation by allegedly engaging in sexual activity or
other improprieties before or outside of marriage.
‘Improper’ behavior justifies grounds for killing. It has
expanded to include transgressions, which are not
initiated by the girl, including rape and incest.

6. The Girl Child
facts and statistics

Currently, 60 million girls are reported as “missing” as a
result of infanticide, sex selective abortions, and neglect.

At least 130 million girls alive today have undergone Female
Genital Mutilation, and 2 million more are at risk every year.

It is reported that at least 5,000 women and girls are
murdered each year for “honor’s sake” by members of their
own families.

United Nation statistics, national reports and studies initiated
by non-governmental organizations repeatedly show that
girls, as a group, have lower literacy rates, receive less
health care, and more impoverished than boys.

7. The Girl Child
female infanticide

What: The deliberate killing of a girl child.

Who: Girl children who are born in societies
where poverty, overpopulation, and
male biases are prevalent.

Where: In regions where poverty and
overpopulation are prevalent. It
predominantly occurs in societies
where girl children are not viewed as
economically advantageous.

Why: Lineage, Income, Dowry, Protection,
Government

8. The Girl Child
female infanticide
Lakshmi’s Case: Tamil Nadu, India
Lakshmi was 20 years old and already had
one daughter. Upon the arrival of a second
girl she no option but to kill this second
daughter. Lakshmi refused to nurse the
newborn and to silence the infant’s cries of
hunger she fed her a poisonous combination
of sap and castor oil. The baby died soon
after.
Source:
Kumar, Sampath, “Life for India Baby Girl Killers,” 17 April, 2003, BBC News,
World Edition, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2956065.stm)
According to UNICEF, up to 50 million girls are missing from India’s
population due to the country’s gender discrimination.

9. The Girl Child
female genital cutting

What: The practice that involves the removal or alteration of the
female genitalia.

Who: Young or adolescent girls from cultures that believe that
FGC will prevent girls from being promiscuous and prevent
them from engaging in sexual intercourse before marriage.

Where: 28 African countries, Muslim populations, Indigenous
groups in Central and South America.

Why: Cultural beliefs and attitudes on multiple fronts: sexual,
sociological, hygienic and aesthetic, religious

Effects:
• Physical ~ Pain, damage to organs, hemorrhage, chronic infections,
complications with sexual intercourse and childbirth.
• Psychological ~ Shock, anxiety

10. The Girl Child
female genital cutting
Hannah’s Case: Ethiopia, East Africa
Hannah was genitally cut when she was eight
years old. She knew little about the
procedure, but understood it to be a ritual,
a ceremony, a process that would allow her
to become a woman. Six women held
Hannah down to perform the procedure.
There was no anesthesia or pain medication
at any point during the procedure, and
Hannah almost lost consciousness because of
the immense pain. The practitioner was
then paid the equivalent of one dollar for
the procedure.
Source:UNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ethiopia_18246.html
Approximately 54% of girls in Ethiopia are subjected to FGC.
There is no national action plan to fight against this abuse.

11. The Girl Child
honor killing

What: Killing of women that can be defined as acts of murder
in which a woman is killed for her actual or perceived
immoral behavior.

Who: Women who have failed to keep marriage contracts,
refused to agree to arranged marriages, requested divorce,
flirted with men other then their husbands, or
for
‘allowing’ themselves to be raped.

Where: Most prominent in the Middle East, Southwest Asia,
and Northwest Africa.

Why: For violating sexual norms or being victims of rape or
other sexual rumor. This is a custom where women are
treated as property and business contracts.

12. The Girl Child
honor killing
Raina’s Case: Jordan, Southwest Asia
Raina Arafat was twenty-one years old and
did not want to marry the man her family
had chosen for her. She Was secretly seeing
her Iraqi boyfriend whom she wanted to
elope with. Her aunts told her they had
arranged a secret meeting between the two
and brought her to an open patch of land in
the suburb of Amman. Her aunts walked
away and let her brother, Rami, shoot her in
the back of her head. Raina’s ‘crime’ was
being in love with a man that was not
sanctioned by her family and cultural ideals.
Source: Gendercide Watch, http://gendercide.org/case_honour.html
Men who kill women for the sake of “honor” in Jordan are usually sentenced to
only a few months in jail. They serve even less time if they hold minor status.

13. The Girl Child
discussion

What are three reasons why women face prejudice
around the world?

Do you think that equal education of girls and boys
would provide more equal rights and less
discrimination against girls?

Who should be in charge of making changes regarding
the issues we have discussed today?

Why do you think people continue to commit these
acts, even though there are laws against them in
some places?

What do you think you can do to help?

14. The Girl Child
what can you do?

Educate yourself about the rights of the Girl Child.

Contact local, state, and national politicians.
•

Talk to your parents about the CRC.
•

Write letters asking for their opinion on the rights of the
Girl Child.
Educate the adults in your life!
Advocate for awareness of the CRC.
•
Begin a social awareness/ human rights club.

15. The Girl Child
UN High Commission on Human Rights
www.unhcr.org
UNICEF
www.unicef.org
Amnesty International
www.amnesty.org
Youth Advocate Program International
www.yapi.org
for more information