WUNRN
Survey Rates Hardest Countries for
Women - Reuters - Free Legal Support
Afghanistan Rated
Hardest Country to Be a Woman
Reuters Survey shows
The
Guardian, Owen
Bowcott - 15 June 2011
A woman works at
a sunflower field at Kunwarpur village, east of
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 by Reuters.
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.
The appearance of
Others were less surprised to be
on the list. Informed about her country's inclusion,
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
"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
"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."
Divya
Bajpai, reproductive health adviser at the International HIV/Aids Alliance,
added: "
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.
Qasim added: "The most
dangerous thing a woman in
"Add to that the rape cases
that happen on a daily basis, and female genital mutilation being done to every
single girl in
Monique Villa, the chief
executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, 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
"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."
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,
"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
"If a woman can't access
healthcare because her healthcare isn't 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