/ 15 June 2011

Afghanistan is most dangerous country for women

Violence, dismal healthcare and brutal poverty make Afghanistan the world’s most dangerous country for women, with the Democratic Republic of Congo a close second due to horrific levels of rape, a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll 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,” said Antonella Notari, head of Women Change Makers, a group that supports women social entrepreneurs around the world.

“In addition, women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what’s acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed.”

The poll by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, marked the launch of its new TrustLaw Women section, a global hub of news and information on women’s legal rights.

TrustLaw 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,” said Elisabeth Roesch, who works on gender-based violence for the International Rescue Committee in Washington.

“If a woman can’t access healthcare because her healthcare isn’t prioritised, that can be a very dangerous situation as well.”

Litany of perils
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.

The DRC, still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4-million 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 United States researchers. The United Nations has called the DRC 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,” said Clementina Cantoni, a Pakistan-based aid worker with Echo, the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department.

“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,” said Divya Bajpai, reproductive health advisor at the International HIV/Aids Alliance.

Some 1 000 women and girls die in honour killings annually, according to Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission.

Trafficking
India ranked fourth primarily due to female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking.

In 2009, India’s then-Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta estimated that 100-million 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,” said Cristi Hegranes, founder of the Global Press institute, which trains women in developing countries to be journalists.

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.

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 50-million girls are thought to be “missing” over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide, the UN Population Fund says.

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,” Somali women’s minister Maryan Qasim told TrustLaw.

“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.”

Following are key facts on each of the five countries, ranked in order of danger.

  1. Afghanistan
  2. Beleaguered by insurgency, corruption and dire poverty, Afghanistan ranked as most dangerous to women overall and came out worst in three of the poll’s key risk categories: health, non-sexual violence and economic discrimination.

    • Women in Afghanistan have a one in 11 chance of dying in childbirth.
    • Some 87% of women are illiterate.
    • 70% to 80% of girls and women face forced marriages.
  3. Democratic Republic of Congo
  4. Still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4-million, Democratic Republic of Congo ranked second due mainly to staggering levels of sexual violence.

    • About 1 150 women are raped every day, or some 420 000 a year, according to a recent report in the American Journal of Public Health.
    • The Congolese Women’s Campaign Against Sexual Violence puts the number of rapes at 40 women a day.
    • 57% of pregnant women are anaemic.
  5. Pakistan
  6. Those polled cited cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women, including acid attacks, child and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other physical abuse.

    • More than 1 000 women and girls are victims of “honour killings” every year, according to Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission.
    • 90% of women in Pakistan face domestic violence.
  7. India
  8. Female foeticide, child marriage and high levels of trafficking and domestic servitude make the world’s largest democracy the fourth most dangerous place for women, the poll showed.

    • 100-million people, mostly women and girls, are involved in trafficking in one way or another, according to former Indian Home Secretay Madhukar Gupta.
    • Up to 50-million girls are “missing” over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide.
    • 44.5% of girls are married before the age of 18.
  9. Somalia
  10. One of the poorest, most violent and lawless countries, Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalogue of dangers including high maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation and child marriage.

    • 95% of women face FGM, mostly between the ages of 4 and 11.
    • Only 9% of women give birth at a health facility.
    • Only 7.5% of Parliament seats are held by women.

— Reuters