OverviewFemale infanticide has been practiced from ear-
liest times to the present in a wide variety of cultures.
The practice usually results from a combination of
poverty, lack or scarcity of resources, patriarchal
social order, preservation of family honor, and the
low status of women. If inheritance goes through
the male line, if sons and not daughters support
their parents in old age, if daughters join their hus-
bands’ families and thereafter contribute their labor
to them, if families must furnish daughters with
dowries upon marriage, if adequate food and care
is available only in quantities sufficient for existing
children, then a newborn daughter may be consid-
ered a burden and the preference for a male child
may be a rational if regrettable economic choice.
In Muslim societies, the practice of female infan-
ticide is the subject of an extensive and well-known
religious discourse. The Qur±àn addresses the prac-
tice in a famous and much-quoted verse: “When
the sun shall be darkened, when the stars shall be
thrown down, when the mountains shall be set
moving, when the pregnant camels shall be neg-
lected, when the savage beasts shall be mustered,
when the seas shall be set boiling, when the souls
shall be coupled, when the buried infant shall be
asked for what sin she was slain, when the scrolls
shall be unrolled, when heaven shall be stripped
off, when Hell shall be set blazing, when Paradise
shall be brought nigh, then shall a soul know what
it has produced” (81:1–14). This passage refers to
the events that will precede the Day of Judgment.
Taken together, events such as polluting the earth
with blood from an infant buried alive or of her
accusing her murderers who must face the harshest
of judgments for their crime are unimaginably hor-
rific calamities. Virtually all jurists have taken this
passage to confirm that female infanticide is in
Islamic law equivalent to the crime of murder.
Criticizing the attitudes of such parents who reject
their female children, the Qur±àn further states:
“And when any of them is given the good tidings of
a girl, his face is darkened and he chokes inwardly,
as he hides him from the people because of the evil
of the good tidings that have been given unto him,
whether he shall preserve it in humiliation, or tram-
ple it into the dust. Ah, evil is that they judge!”
(16:58–9).
Infanticide and Abandonment of Female Children
Other passages reinforce the illegality of infanti-
cide and place a high value on family relations:
“Say: ‘Come, I will recite what your Lord has for-
bidden you: that you associate not anything with
Him, and to be good to your parents, and not to
slay your children because of poverty; We will pro-
vide you and them” (6:151). Similarly, we read,
“And slay not your children for fear of poverty; We
will provide for you and them; surely the slaying of
them is a grievous sin” (17:31); “What, has your
Lord favored you with sons and taken to Himself
from the angels females? Surely it is a monstrous
thing you are saying!” (17:42).
According to the Qur±àn, providence determines
the sex of the fetus: “To God belongs the Kingdom
of the heavens and the earth; He creates what He
will; He gives to whom He will females, and He
gives to whom He will males or He couples them,
both males and females; and He makes whom He
will barren. Surely He is all knowing, All-power-
ful” (42:49).
The ™adìthliterature also contains many sayings
of the Prophet Mu™ammad that express his high
regard for daughters and for their proper upbring-
ing. According to both Bukhàrìand Muslim, the
Prophet said, “Whoever maintains two girls till
they attain maturity, he and I will come on the
Resurrection Day like this; and he joined his fin-
gers.” Similarly, Ibn £anbal reported, “Whosoever
has a daughter and he does not bury her alive, does
not insult her, and does not favor his son over her;
God will enter him into Paradise,” and “Whoso-
ever supports two sisters till they mature, he and I
will come in the Day of Judgment as this (and he
pointed with his two fingers held together).”
Islamic modernists have cited these and other
™adìths to demonstrate that Islam calls for kind and
respectful treatment of daughters.
In recent years, women’s rights advocates have
built on the work of the Islamic modernists to show
that Islam does not favor males over females.
Indeed, they insist, the Qur±àn from the outset
called for women’s equality and inherent rights.
Verse 16:59 quoted earlier is among the passages
taken to demonstrate that Islam condemns all
forms of violence against women. The usual
approach is to emphasize the low status of women
before Islam, which is proven by the practice of
female infanticide, and the improved status of