Female Infanticide, Female Genital Cutting, Honor Killing

1
Discrimination Against the Girl Child

• Female Infanticide, Female Genital Cutting, Honor
  Killing

Youth Advocate Program International 4545 42nd
St. NW, Suite 209 Washington DC, 20016,
USA www.yapi.org
2
The Girl Child what do you know?

• What is discrimination?
• What examples of discrimination come to mind?
• Does the United States provide equal
  opportunities for men and womenand girls and
  boys?
• If the US 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 words to know

• 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 rides family
  must give to the family of her husband as a
  requirement of marriage.

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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
  feticide-selective 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
  familys 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 honors 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.
• Source Youth Advocate Program International
  www.yapi.org
• Source Youth Advocate Program International
  www.yapi.org
• Source United Nations Childrens Fund
  www.unicef.org
• Source Amnesty International www.amnesty.org

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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

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The Girl Child female infanticide

• Lakshmis 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 infants 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_a
  sia/2956065.stm)

According to UNICEF, up to 50 million girls are
missing from Indias population due to the
countrys 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

• Hannahs 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.
• SourceUNICEF, www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ethiop
  ia_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

• Rainas 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. Rainas crime was being in love
  with a man that was not sanctioned by her family
  and cultural ideals.
• Source Gendercide Watch, http//gendercide.org/ca
  se_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.
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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?

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The Girl Child what can you do?

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

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The Girl Child for more information

• 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