http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/201161582525243992.html
Afghanistan 'most dangerous place for women'
Survey says war-torn nation worst place for women while Congo, which has
"horrific levels of rape", is ranked second.
Last Modified: 15 Jun 2011 09:24
Education is a privilege for most Afghan women due to poverty and a
conservative social environment [AFP]
Afghanistan has been ranked as the world's most dangerous country for women,
with Congo taking a close second position, a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert
poll has said.
Violence, dismal healthcare and brutal poverty afflicts women in Afghanistan,
while in Congo there are horrific levels of rape, the survey conducted by
TrustLaw, an arm of Thomson Reuters, said on Wednesday.
Pakistan, India and Somalia ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively in the
global survey of perceptions of threats ranging from domestic abuse and
economic discrimination to female foeticide, genital mutilation and acid
attacks.
"Ongoing conflict, NATO airstrikes and cultural practices combined make
Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women," Antonella Notari, head of women
change makers, a group that supports women social entrepreneurs around the
world, said.
The survey asked 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by
overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks. The risks were health
threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors,
lack of access to resources and trafficking.
Some experts said the poll showed that subtle dangers such as discrimination
that don't grab headlines are sometimes just as significant risks for women as
bombs, bullets, stonings and systematic rape in conflict zones.
"I think you have to look at all the dangers to women, all the risks women and
girls face," Elisabeth Roesch, who works on gender-based violence for the
International Rescue Committee in Washington, said.
"If a woman can't access healthcare because her healthcare isn't prioritised,
that can be a very dangerous situation as well."
Female rights
Afghanistan emerged as the most dangerous country for women overall and worst
in three of the six risk categories: health, non-sexual violence and lack of
access to economic resources.
Respondents cited sky-high maternal mortality rates, limited access to doctors
and a near total lack of economic rights.
Afghan women have a one in 11 chance of dying in childbirth, according to
UNICEF.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and
accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4m people, came second mainly
due to staggering levels of sexual violence in the lawless east.
More than 400,000 women are raped in the country each year, according to a
recent study by US researchers. The United Nations has called Congo the rape
capital of the world.
"Statistics from DRC are very revealing on this: ongoing war, use of rape as a
weapon, recruitment of females as soldiers who are also used as sex slaves,"
Clementina Cantoni, a Pakistan-based aid worker with ECHO, the European
Commission's humanitarian aid department, said.
"The fact that the government is corrupt and that female rights are very low on
the agenda means that there is little or no recourse to justice."
Rights activists say militia groups and soldiers target all ages, including
girls as young as three and elderly women. They are gang-raped, raped with
bayonets and have guns shot into their vaginas.
Pakistan ranked third largely 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.
"Pakistan has some of the highest rates of dowry murder, so-called honour
killings and early marriage," Divya Bajpai, reproductive health advisor at the
International HIV/AIDS Alliance, said.
Some 1,000 women and girls die in honour killings annually, according to
Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.
Trafficking of women
India ranked fourth primarily due to female foeticide, infanticide and human
trafficking.
In 2009, India's then-Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta estimated that 100m people,
mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India that year.
"The practice is common but lucrative so it goes untouched by government and
police," Cristi Hegranes, founder of the Global Press institute, which trains
women in developing countries to be journalists, said.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation estimated that in 2009 about 90 per
cent of trafficking took place within the country and that there were some 3m
prostitutes, of which about 40 per cent were children.
In addition to sex slavery, other forms of trafficking include forced labour
and forced marriage, according to a US state department report on trafficking
in 2010. The report also found slow progress in criminal prosecutions of
traffickers.
Up to 50m girls are thought to be "missing" over the past century due to female
infanticide and foeticide, the UN Population Fund said.
Some experts said the world's largest democracy was relatively forthcoming
about describing its problems, possibly casting it in a darker light than if
other countries were equally transparent about trafficking.
Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalogue of dangers including high maternal
mortality, rape and female genital mutilation, along with limited access to
education, healthcare and economic resources.
"I'm completely surprised because I thought Somalia would be first on the list,
not fifth," Maryan Qasim, the Somali women's minister said.
"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, the female genital
mutilation that is being done to every single girl in Somalia. Add to that the
famine and the drought. Add to that the fighting (which means) you can die any
minute, any day."
Poll respondents included aid professionals, academics, health workers,
policymakers, journalists and development specialists.
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