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The Motives behind buryinZ infant dau&hters alive
1. The first motive is explained clearly in the . Qur-an: - ýý _-
"Kill not your children for fear of want:
we shall provide substance for them as well
as you. Verily. the, killing of them is, a
great sin. " 1
Poverty was, in this case, the main motive behind it (as the Qurlan
indicates). As Smith remarked: The Nomads of Arabia suffer
constantly from hunger during a great part of the year. The only
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persons who have enough to eat are great men. In such circumstances&
it is safe to conclude that the pressure of famine was a major factor
responsible for infanticide. These innocent girls were a burden to their
families. We might consider burying daughters alive was an act of
cruelt y, but this might be a normal reaction for these people who were
suffering from a harsh life. "To the poorer, a daughter was a burden,
and infanticide was as natural to them as to other' savage people in
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the hard struggle for life. 11
Burying daughters alive was regarded by some Arabs as a sort of
kindness and mercy to the female, because their parents knew about
their weakness and their inability to struggle against all the harshness
of life. They Preferred to choose death for their daughters instead of
letting them undergo the hardship and dangers of life. They chose the
bitterness of losing a daughter with all its grier, instead of burdening
themselves with the responsibility of a female.
To Pre-Islamic Arabs however, "the despatch of a daughter is a
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kindness. " "The burial of daughters is a noble
Q. 17.. 31
2. Smith. OP- Cit.. P. 294
3. Ib id
4. Nicholson, op. cit., P. 91
5. Ibid
deed. "
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