Worst Places in the World to be a Woman

Patriarchal and misogynistic attitudes allow women to fall victim to domestic violence, rape, acid attacks, abuse and exploitation all over the world.


The worst places to be a woman:

1 - Afghanistan Afghan women resort to self-immolation
2 - The Democratic Republic of the Congo Congo, 'rape capital of the world'
3 - Pakistan A Pakistani acid attack victim fights for justice
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/interfaith-dialogues/35701-worst-places-in-the-world-woman.html
4 - India Domestic violence endemic in India
5 - Somalia 'No woman in Somalia happy to be a woman'

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 on Wednesday.

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 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."

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 3 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."

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 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."

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 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 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.


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...hanistan-india
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701


It seems as though we still have a long way to go until women stop fighting for 'equality' and basic human rights which should be innate.

 
Do share your immediate thoughts or reactions on this issue? We value your views! Login Now! or Sign Up Today! to share your views with us.. Gurfateh!

So what is the Sikh interpretation of such terrible occurences happening in the world? Is the woman shot in the vagina with a gun or raped with a bayonet just paying for her past life karma? I find that really hard to believe.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701

I really struggle to see how Sikhism can put this sort of horror into context. Please, enlighten me.

It is very difficult for me to sit here in the comfort of my home, happily reading my nitnem, basking in the feelings of closeness to the divine (however imagined they might be), while this sort of things goes on, and realise that the very Thing I'm trying to connect to (the Primal Source) is also the primal source of such vile creatures and vile actions.

I find myself asking, why the heck bother to worship something which has created and allows this sort of thing to continue.

And please, no "you're confusing Waheguru with the Abrahamic God" comments, please.

Sikhs should stand up and fight against these injustices. Sikhs should help these women. That is where Sikhi comes in.

Atrocities have been visited on the weak by the powerful, and on the weak by the weak, for centuries with no sign of ending. Advocacy and speaking out, actively lobbying, becoming a force for good....all important, and all necessary. But if these were the sole cures, these problems of abuse of women would have ended long ago (as would abuse against children, animals, the disabled and the poor). They haven't. They are still with us. The place to start is with ourselves. Each individual, who is trying to perfect his/her own soul's journey toward the divine, is one more person turning the wheel of dharma in the direction of what is right, and one less person turning that wheel of dharma away from what is wrong. It starts and ends with you. "happily reading nitnem, basking in feelings of closeness to the divine," is how to combat atrocities. That is how Guru Nanak started.

ISHNA JI..there is no such thing as karma and all that..
SIKHS only kill female children in the WOMB.....and maybe BURN a few Brides whose parents committed the sin of not borrowing enough to give dowry of enough "muulah".. scooters instead of cars.???.Tractors and a few acres of land..bungalow in the city ??.etc..
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701
The First sin of Womb Murder is so that they DONT have to GIVE what they DEMAND of others !!!

AND one more rather intriguing fact...
Guru nanak ji and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji accords WOMAN the HIGHEST status, respect and Love...YET WOMEN are the BIGGEST REASON for the proliferation of the ANTI_Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, DERAS all over PUNJAB. Women are the vast MAJORITY attendees of these FAKE Babas and their deras..taksaals....
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701
Woemn seem to be their own "worst enemies"....Its the WOMEN who force other women to MURDER their unborn children..the dadee..granny..mother in law..elder ones..FORCE the daughter in law to ABORT..or torture the new bride..etc..
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701
IN ISLAM its the WOMEN who are strongest advocates of burqa, veils, obeying their husbands t the extent of being slaves and sex slaves too...they accept everything the man does as Allah Ordained...

How childish will it sound if I say "men started it"? It's not usually the women becoming the sants, etc.

But what I'm really interested in is how a Sikh can see the atrocities thar happen in the world and rationalize it in the Sikh belief system.

We can't blame an evil force like Satan. In fact, even the followers of religions which do believe in Satan acknowledge that Satan only exists because God allows it to exist.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=35701

Of course Sikhs don't believe in Satan. For a Sikh, all there is is Ik Oankar, Karta Purakh. The same Truth is everywhere, the Naam is the support of all things, and the existence of evil rapist torturer ba$tards is Written. It's hard to fathom and hard to accept.

It's hard to reconcile the fact that Naam is as much circling around those inhuman ***wipes as it is around you and I and the pedo wife beater next door. What's the point of tuning in to that then?

ishna ji

I am not sure I understand what you mean

I am tempted to say that a Sikh who rationalizes atrocities is sorely mislead and misleading others too. But maybe I need an example or two, or more specifics. It seems to me that many if not most religions have used religion to rationalize atrocities, often with the explanation of karma and/or God's will. In actuality, the root causes are greed, lust for power, or ego's need for social status and social respectability. When I see that or read about religiously sponsored atrocities, I cannot help thinking that the primitive layer is much deeper in humankind that we as humans are able to admit. Religion, which can be a force for moral growth of individuals and societies, sinks to something base and ugly because the same primitive instincts have overpowered large segments of members of most religions and their leaders.

Remember all the atrocities by evil kings on our Guru Sahib. He accepted them as Will of God. How God chooses is hard to understand. There are so many things about God beyond our understanding.

Read this pauree:


ਅਸੰਖ ਮੂਰਖ ਅੰਧ ਘੋਰ ॥
Countless fools, blinded by ignorance.

ਅਸੰਖ ਚੋਰ ਹਰਾਮਖੋਰ ॥
Countless thieves and embezzlers.

ਅਸੰਖ ਅਮਰ ਕਰਿ ਜਾਹਿ ਜੋਰ ॥
Countless impose their will by force.

ਅਸੰਖ ਗਲਵਢ ਹਤਿਆ ਕਮਾਹਿ ॥
Countless cut-throats and ruthless killers.

ਅਸੰਖ ਪਾਪੀ ਪਾਪੁ ਕਰਿ ਜਾਹਿ ॥
Countless sinners who keep on sinning.

ਅਸੰਖ ਕੂੜਿਆਰ ਕੂੜੇ ਫਿਰਾਹਿ ॥
Countless liars, wandering lost in their lies.

ਅਸੰਖ ਮਲੇਛ ਮਲੁ ਭਖਿ ਖਾਹਿ ॥
Countless wretches, eating filth as their ration.

ਅਸੰਖ ਨਿੰਦਕ ਸਿਰਿ ਕਰਹਿ ਭਾਰੁ ॥
Countless slanderers, carrying the weight of their stupid mistakes on their heads.

ਨਾਨਕੁ ਨੀਚੁ ਕਹੈ ਵੀਚਾਰੁ ॥
Nanak describes the state of the lowly.

ਵਾਰਿਆ ਨ ਜਾਵਾ ਏਕ ਵਾਰ ॥
I cannot even once be a sacrifice to You.

ਜੋ ਤੁਧੁ ਭਾਵੈ ਸਾਈ ਭਲੀ ਕਾਰ ॥
Whatever pleases You is the only good done,

ਤੂ ਸਦਾ ਸਲਾਮਤਿ ਨਿਰੰਕਾਰ ॥੧੮॥
You, Eternal and Formless One. ||18||

In war, the commander gives out battle plans to soldiers. But sometimes some soldiers start doing their own thinking, giving up on orders. Sometimes this can cost a lot of lives for foolishness of soldier. Here people are doing as they please without listening to God. Can you blame God?

You can't accept one aspect of life (or God) and reject others.

Any Sikh who sees such an atrocity happening should revolt, and defend the helpless. There is no rationalization for such things.

Think of it this way, our DNA is like cooking recipe. If we heat for right time, we get delicious food. Or if we overheat more than specified time, we get burnt good-for-nothing food. The same thing applies to humans. Guru guides us how to be the best in ourselves.

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh