Maps in the News

Maps in the News:  Honor Killings

News of a reported “honor killing” of a woman by her family in Pakistan is shocking.  This map (click to enlarge) from the State of Women in the World atlas by Joni Seager identifies countries where honor killings regularly occur. 

“’Honor killing’ is a term used to identify a form of legally or socially sanctioned revenged exercised within a family against a woman who is deemed to have soiled the family’s honor, usually through behavior that is judged to be sexually inappropriate.”  Between 2002 and 2006 in Pakistan, more than 4,100 honor killings occurred.  According to the map, three women per day in Pakistan are murdered in honor killings.

The State of the Women in the World atlas is available in the Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection and the Atlas Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library.