Summary

Kristof and WuDunn write that killing a girl who doesn’t bleed on her wedding night is a religious rite and an accepted practice in some cultures. The Bible advocates stoning girls to death if they don’t bleed on their wedding nights. In China starving a woman is preferable to a woman losing her chastity. Kristof and WuDunn explain that this cult of virginity results in the abuse and killing of women for “sexual honor.” There are also honor killings that result when a girl has shamed the family name by sexual behavior or is dating an unacceptable man. Ironically, it is the most conservative cultures with the strictest moral codes that advocate the ultimate crime of murder.

Kristof and WuDunn write that Du’a Aswad, a Kurdish girl in northern Iraq, fell in love with a Sunni Arab...