Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian grew up in Haifa, Israel and now lives in Jerusalem. She received an M.A. in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1994 from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has been visiting professor, Faculty of Law, at UCLA and USC, and is also a lecturer, Faculty of Social Work, at The Hebrew University. Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a criminologist and specialist in human rights and women’s rights. She consulted with Human Rights Watch on its most recent report on violence against Palestinian women in Israel and with the UNIFEM division of the United Nations. 

Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian has conducted academic research on the multiple forms of violence inflicted upon Palestinian women and girls. She is on the board of the New Israel Fund and collaborates with Israelis on campaigns to help achieve peace and justice through better understanding across cultures. Since 2006, she has been director of the Gender Studies Project at Mada al-Carmel, Haifa, the nonprofit Arab Center for Applied Social Research located in Haifa, Israel. In place of the terms "honor crime" and "crime of passion," she prefers to refer to the victimization of Palestinian women as "femicide" because, as she explains, these crimes involve no honor, passion, or romance. She has trained women activists in the West Bank and Gaza regarding their rights under law and established a hotline for abused Palestinian women. 

A prolific author, Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian has written extensively on domestic violence, the criminal justice response to violence against Palestinian women, child abuse, and women in Palestinian society. In addition to journal articles and book chapters, she has authored two books: Tribal Justice and its Effect on Formal Justice in Palestine (Institute of Law, Birzeit University, 2003) and Femicide in Palestinian Society (UNIFEM, New York, 2001).