In a recent article Judith Timson (Globe & Mail) suggests that the murder of young women in the name of honour (otherwise called “washing shame with blood”) is a deeply embedded cultural problem. As she states, it is rooted in the belief that women are equal to men and, indeed, the property of men. The UN reports that 5000 females die each year because of this simple belief. Constance Backhouse (a law professor of mine!) prefers to use the term “femicide” since these killings are crimes against females. So the current legal case about whether an Ontario father killed his three daughters alerts women to one fact, as Ms Timson states: “Feminism still matters, has never mattered more.
It changed the way Western men view and treat women and one day it will be responsible for those changes around the world.” (Source Globe & Mail 2 December 2011)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/; http://www.constancebackhouse.ca