Inside an Honor Killing

A shockingly intimate look at the world of honor killings, as seen through the eyes of both the perpetrators and the victims.

What drives a person to murder their sister, mother, or daughter? What is life like in a society in which women are imprisoned for their own “protection,” while their potential killers walk free?

In this powerful and affecting book, writer and journalist Lene Wold offers a rare window into the world of “honor killings”—the controversial practice that sees more than five thousand women murdered at the hands of close relatives each year, all to restore their family’s reputation. Wold spent more than five years in Jordan, visiting prisons and mosques, reviewing newspapers and judicial archives, and interviewing imams, village elders, and other locals to understand these violent acts. But she also spoke with the killers themselves, including a man who murdered his mother and daughter and attempted to kill his other daughter. In Inside an Honor Killing, Wold shares what she learned, weaving a shocking tale of honor killing told from the perpetrators’ perspective as well as the victims’.

Lene Wold is an investigative journalist, an activist for Amnesty International, and a writer who has worked for the Independent and the Centre for Investigative Journalism in England. She has an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths, University of London, has a BA in Development Studies from the University of Oslo, and has studied Arabic in Lebanon and Jordan. Wold has lived and worked as a freelancer in the Middle East and today resides in Oslo, Norway.

“Readers with interests in global feminism, LGBTQ issues, human rights, or contemporary Middle Eastern culture will want to take a look at this sincere quest to understand the phenomenon.”
—Publishers Weekly

"This book isn’t one bit easy to read but if you’re concerned about women’s rights or current events, it’s essential that you do."
—Marco News

“With the skill of a novelist, journalist Lene Wold transports us into the mindset of an honor-killing culture in Jordan which demands that offended honor be redeemed... Most important, she reveals that the killers feel they are also victims, forced by cultural standards into killing.”
—Phyllis Chesler, author of Islamic Gender Apartheid: Exposing a Veiled War Against Women and A Family Conspiracy: Honor Killing

“Honor killing of Muslim women is probably one of the worst stains on humanity today. In this book, the reader is forced to hear, see, and feel the women the world would rather ignore.”
—Yasmin Mohammed, founder of Free Hearts Free Minds