Afghanistan: worst place for women, India in top five
Kirthi Hewamanne
Targeted violence against female public officials, dismal healthcare
and desperate poverty make Afghanistan the world’s most dangerous
country in which to be born a woman, according to a global survey
released recently.
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A victim of an acid attack |
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Pakistan, India and
Somalia feature in descending order after Afghanistan in the list of the
five worst states, the poll among gender experts shows.
Extremely hazardous
The appearance of India, a country rapidly developing into an
economic super-power, was unexpected. It is ranked as extremely
hazardous because of the subcontinent’s high level of female infanticide
and sex trafficking.
Others were less surprised to be on the list. Informed about her
country’s inclusion, Somalia’s women’s minister, Maryan Qasim,
responded: “I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth.”
The survey has been compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to mark
the launch of a website, TrustLaw Woman, aimed at providing free legal
advice for women’s groups around the world.
High maternal mortality rates, limited access to doctors and a “near
total lack of economic rights” render Afghanistan such a threat to its
female inhabitants.
“Continuing conflict, Nato airstrikes and cultural practices combine
to make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women,” said Antonella
Notari, head of Women Change Makers, a group that supports women social
entrepreneurs around the world.
“Women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that
challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what is acceptable for women
to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are
often intimidated or killed.”
The “staggering levels of sexual violence” in the lawless east of the
DRC account for its second place in the list. One recent US study
claimed that more than 400,000 women are raped there each year. The UN
has called Congo the rape capital of the world.
“Rights activists say militia groups and soldiers target all ages,
including girls as young as three and elderly women,” the survey
reports, “They are gang raped, raped with bayonets and some have guns
shot into their vaginas.”
Harmful to women
Pakistan is ranked third on the basis of cultural, tribal and
religious practices harmful to women. “These include acid attacks, child
and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other
physical abuse,” the poll finds.
Divya Bajpai, reproductive health adviser at the International HIV /
Aids Alliance, added: “Pakistan has some of the highest rates of dowry
murder, so-called honour killings and early marriage.” According to
Pakistan’s human rights commission, as many as 1,000 women and girls die
in honour killings annually. India is the fourth most dangerous country.
“India’s central bureau of investigation estimated that in 2009 about
90% of trafficking took place within the country and that there were
some three million prostitutes, of which about 40% were children,” the
survey found. Forced marriage and forced labour trafficking add to the
dangers for women. “Up to 50 million girls are thought to be ‘missing’
over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide,”, the UN
population fund says, because parents prefer to have young boys rather
than girls.
Somalia, a state in political disintegration, suffers high levels of
maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation and limited access
to education and healthcare.
Qasim added: “The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is
to become pregnant. When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50
because there is no antenatal care at all. There are no hospitals, no
healthcare, no nothing.
“Add to that the rape cases that happen on a daily basis, and female
genital mutilation being done to every single girl in Somalia. Add to
that famine and drought. Add to that the fighting [which means] you can
die any minute, any day.” The chief executive of the Thomson Reuters
Foundation,Monique Villa said: “Hidden dangers - like a lack of
education or terrible access to healthcare - are as deadly, if not more
so, than physical dangers like rape and murder which usually grab the
headlines.
“In Afghanistan, for instance, women have a one in 11 chance of dying
in childbirth. In the top five countries, basic human rights are
systematically denied to women.
“Empowering women tackles the very roots of poverty. In the
developing world when a woman works, her children are better fed and
better educated because they spend their money for their family.”
Very dangerous
The survey was based on responses from more than 200 aid
professionals, academics, health workers, policymakers, journalists and
development specialists chosen for their expertise in gender issues.
Each country was also ranked in terms of six risk factors including:
health, discrimination and lack of access to resources, cultural and
religious practices, sexual violence, human trafficking and
conflict-related violence.
In terms of individual risk categories, Afghanistan was deemed to be
the most dangerous for health, economic/discrimination and non-sexual
violence; the Congo is most plagued by rape and sexual violence; and
India has most problems with trafficking.
“You have to look at all the dangers to women, all the risks women
and girls face,” said Elisabeth Roesch, who works on gender-based
violence for the International Rescue Committee in Washington. “If a
woman cannot access healthcare because her healthcare is not prioritised,
that can be a very dangerous situation as well.”
The TrustLaw website has been in existence for some time, linking up
local NGOs and social entrepreneurs with established law firms who are
prepared to offer legal advice on a pro-bono basis. The groups are
vetted by Transparency International.
More than 450 law firms are already involved including some from
China. Among those that have recently benefited have been the charity
Riders for Health, which delivers medicine to remote villages, and
reviewed its contracts in Nigeria.
Courtesy : Guardian
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