Gendercide

A decade ago I wrote a newspaper article about Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s controversial book Mother Nature: Natural Selection and the Female of the Species. Halfway through I came across a photo that has haunted me ever since. A Pakistani mother is feeding her twins. The babies are about five months old. One baby is a well-nourished boy, his plump limbs relaxed as he sprawls across her lap. Her hand gently cradles his large head as he suckles contentedly at her breast.