By James Tillman
NABLUS, West Bank, May 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)—A Palestinian man has confessed to killing his 27-year-old wife because she was pregnant with a girl rather than a boy, according to MaanNews.net.
The woman was found dead in her home in a village northeast of Nablus. The mother, three months pregnant, already had three boys and a girl.
Her husband was arrested after the discovery of scratch wounds on his body corresponding to DNA evidence from blood found under his wife's nails. Witnesses told police that her husband had also beaten her when she was carrying her eldest daughter in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy.
Relatives of the woman said that he was envious of his brother, who had nine sons.
Biologically, the father's genetic material determines a child's sex.
Such cases are not uncommon: around the globe, women have been known to be beaten or abandoned for bearing girls rather than boys. Under many circumstances boys are more economically valuable than girls, and girls may be considered bad luck. This has lead both to the abuse of women and sex-selective abortions.
Sex-selective abortion and infanticide of female infants are common in China, which has in turn lead to a massive imbalance of men and women. It has been estimated that China will have 30 million more marriageable men than women by 2020.
Sex-selective abortions are also common in India, where brides have become so scarce that some families have not only dropped their demand for a dowry, but even offered to pay the family of a girl willing to marry.
Such abortions have even been found in Asian communities in the United States and in Canada.
See related stories on LifeSiteNews.com:
“Gendercide”– Abortion and Infanticide of Girls Leading to Lop-Sided Demographics
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05112208.html