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Women's Rights?
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The countries represented in tan at the left are the only countries that have not ratified the U.N. treaty named "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women." The U.S. keeps company with Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. 168 countries have ratified this treaty. (Illus. and data from CNN) |
Introduction:
At least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way, usually by an intimate partner or family member, according to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA. In Africa, domestic violence, rape and other sexual abuse and female genital mutilation are of special concern.
Documenting the extent of the problem, The State of World Population 2000 report says that gender-based violence constitutes a life-long threat for hundreds of millions of girls and women around the world. Gender-based violence - in various forms including rape, domestic violence, "honour" killings and trafficking in women - exacts a heavy toll on mental and physical health. Increasingly, gender-based violence is recognized as a major public health concern and a serious violation of basic human rights.
The problem seems worst in Asia and in the Muslim world. However, African women are subject to a range of oppressive threats.
Violence against women and girls takes many forms:
Birth Control:
Millions of women lack altogether any means of birth control. The current administration has withheld funding for women's reproductive health from countries utilizing abortion as one form of birth control even when the health agencies within the countries promise not to use any funds received from the U.S. for abortions.
Population Action International
Abortion:
Hundreds of thousands of women have abortions in any given year, with or without our funding. The price in women's lives is high.
Female Genital Mutilation:
Many societies in Africa and Western Asia practice FGM, often referred to as female circumcision. Worldwide, some 130 million girls and young women have undergone this dangerous and painful practice, with an additional 2 million at risk each year.
FGM is practiced in about 28 countries in Africa - where the prevalence varies widely, from 5 per cent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to 98 per cent in Somalia - and in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf region. It also occurs among some minority groups in Asia, and among immigrant women in Europe, Canada and the United States.
FGM refers to the removal of all or part of the clitoris and other genitalia. Those who perform the more extreme form, infibulation, remove the clitoris and both labia and sew together both sides of the vulva. This leaves only a small opening to allow passage of urine and menstrual blood. Infibulation accounts for an estimated 15 per cent of all cases of FGM, and 80-90 per cent of cases in Djibouti, Somalia and the Sudan.
This terrible violation of girls' and young women's human rights is based on prevailing beliefs that female sexuality must be controlled, and the virginity of young girls preserved until marriage. Men in some cultures will not marry uncircumcised girls because they view them as "unclean" or sexually permissive.
Genital mutilation is nearly always carried out in unsanitary conditions without anaesthetic. It is also extremely painful and may result in severe infection, shock or even death. If the girl survives, she may experience painful sexual intercourse, degrading the quality of her life.
In some cases, FGM can lead to sterility. A study carried out in the Sudan found that women who had undergone FGM were twice as likely to be infertile as women who had not. In traditional societies, infertility is a particularly devastating condition, since a woman's worth in many of these cultures is measured by her ability to bear children. ---UNFPA, c2000.
WHO | Female genital mutilation
Female Infanticide:
Female infanticide involves the murder of female children and is practiced in areas of the world where the culture accords much greater value to males. For more on the subject, see
Gendercide Watch: Female Infanticide
Feminization of Poverty
As globalization changes markets and economic opportunities worldwide, the feminization of poverty remains a global phenomenon.
Women are still the poorest of the world's poor, representing 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty. When nearly 900 million women have incomes of less than $1 a day, the association between gender inequality and poverty remains a harrowing reality. --UNIFEM, 2001
HIV/AIDS Statistics:
Millions of people worldwide have AIDS. Women now constitute 49% of all cases.
HIV/AIDS Statistics
Worldwide AIDS Statistics
"Honor" Killing:
Throughout the world, perhaps as many as 5,000 women and girls a year are murdered by members of their own families, many of them for the "dishonour" of having been raped, often as not by a member of their own extended family. Many forms of communally sanctioned violence against women, such as "honour" killings, are associated with the community's or the family's demand for sexual chastity and virginity.
In Egypt, a father paraded his daughter's severed head through the streets shouting, "I avenged my honour."
Such killings have been reported in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda and the United Kingdom, according to the report. The report says that "honour" killings tend to be more prevalent in, but are not limited to, countries with a majority Muslim population. It adds, however, that Islamic leaders have condemned the practice and say it has no religious basis. --UNFPR, c2000.
Dowry Statistics:
Rising number of dowry deaths in India
Exploitation of Labor:
- Women now comprise an increasing share of the world's labor force - at least one third in all regions except in northern Africa and western Asia.
-Self-employment and part-time and home-based work have expanded opportunities for women's participation in the labor force but are characterized by lack of security, lack of benefits and low income.
- More women than before are in the labor force throughout their reproductive years, though obstacles to combining family responsibilities with employment persist.
Reproductive Health Problems:
"every minute of every day, a woman dies of a pregnancy-related cause, adding up to more than 500,000 maternal deaths each year. Ninety-nine percent of these women die in the developing world." --Safe Motherhood Interagency Group, Nov. 2000
- In addition, more than one in four women in developing countries currently suffer from short- or long-term illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth... -Safe Motherhood Interagency Group, Nov. 2000.
Women and Armed Conflict
It is estimated that close to 90 per cent of current war casualties are civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, compared to a century ago when 90 per cent of those who lost their lives were military personnel.
Although entire communities suffer the consequences of armed conflict, women and girls are particularly affected because of their status in society and their sex. Parties in conflict situations often rape women, sometimes using systematic rape as a tactic of war. Other forms of violence against women committed in armed conflict include murder, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and forced sterilization.
Despite this, women should not be viewed solely as victims of war. They assume the key role of ensuring family livelihood in the midst of chaos and destruction, and are particularly active in the peace movement at the grassroots level, cultivating peace within their communities. However, the absence of women at the peace negotiating table is undeniable. -- WomenWatch (U.N.)
