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Every year an estimated 5000 women are killed by so-called crimes of honor. It is a practice that links a woman’s sexuality, and often virginity, to the honor of her family and entire community. For more than 15 years, Jordanian journalist and women’s rights activist Rana Husseini has dedicated her life to uncovering the stories of violence against women, and helped to veer both legal and cultural traditions away from this barbaric practice. Her work has led her to discover that so-called honor killings happen all over the world, contrary to the belief that they are restricted to the Arab and Muslim world. In countries like Italy, the UK, Brazil, and right here in the US, violence against women stemming from jealousy, male entitlement, family honor, and other patriarchal structures, is far more prevalent than most of us realize. Rana Husseini has captured the stories of many of these women, and her work in their support, in a new book called Murder in the Name of Honor: The True Story of One Woman’s Heroic Fight Against an Unbelievable Crime. I spoke with her for an extended interview and today we’ll play you part one of our two part interview. Rana Husseini begins by reading to us from her book.

GUEST: Rana Husseini, Jordanian journalist and women’s rights activist