Clue: Overweight women given a death sentence (5)
Answer: FATWA
Explanation: Definition: death sentence
A charade of FAT ('overweight') plus W ('women') plus 'a'. A fatwa is in origin an official order issued by a Muslim religious leader, but, after Salman Rushdie's *The Satanic Verses,* it has essentially taken on the definition given in the clue; perhaps, to be strictly precise, a question mark might have been appended to the clue to announce an indication by example.