Burned Alive by Souad

I've had this book for a while, and have only just picked it up to read. This is the story of a survivor of an honour killing, her brother in law poured petrol over her and set her alight. Her crime? She fell in love, committed the sin of sex before marriage and became pregnant. Women from her village took her to hospital where she was left to die. A worker with an international charity discovered her fate and at great risk to her own personal safety rescued the gravely ill girl and brought her to Europe to start a new life.

This book roused very strong emotions for me. I felt anger that there are still places in the world where girls are seen to be of less value than animals, and where once a family has enough daughters to carry out all the household tasks any further baby girls born can be smothered. I feel desperately sad that there are societies where an act that brings aparent dishonour on the family can be punished by death rather than forgiven. Still more I feel immense gratitude that I live a relatively free life in a western country.