Many people, including many women, are unaware of the horrendous facts regarding Violence Against Women. So please study the facts below and then bring them to the attention of your families, friends and readers.
Every little increase in awareness helps.
Philip
Here are some facts and figures taken from the
Secretary-General’s in-depth study on violence against women (2006) (A/61/122/Add.1):
* Violence against women is the most common but least punished crime in the world.
* It is estimated that between 113 million and 200 million women are demographically “missing.” They have been the victims of infanticide (boys are preferred to girls) or have not received the same amount of food and medical attention as their brothers and fathers.
* The number of women forced or sold into prostitution is estimated worldwide at anywhere between 700,000 and 4,000,000 per year. Profits from sex slavery are estimated at seven to twelve billion US dollars per year.
* Globally, women between the age of fifteen and forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die as a result of male violence than through cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war combined.
* At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Usually, the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her. Domestic violence is the largest form of abuse of women worldwide, irrespective of region, culture, ethnicity, education, class and religion.
* It is estimated that more than two million girls are genitally mutilated per year, a rate of one girl every fifteen seconds.
* Systematic rape is used as a weapon of terror in many of the world’s conflicts. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women in Rwanda were raped during the 1994 genocide.
* Studies show the increasing links between violence against women and HIV and demonstrate that HIV-infected women are more likely to have experienced violence, and that victims of violence are at higher risk of HIV infection.
Here are some facts courtesy of
Amnesty International:
*At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be expected to be alive are ‘missing’ from various populations as a result of sex-selective abortions or inadequate care as they are seen less important than boys.
*20-70% of abused women never told another person
about the abuse until being interviewed for a study. (WHO, Geneva, 2002)
*Nearly one in four women will experience sexual
violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
*At least 54 countries have discriminatory
laws against women.
Finally, here are some facts from
An article in InfoPlease by Borgna Brunner:
* About 25,000 brides are burned to death each year in India because of insufficient dowries. The groom’s family will set the bride on fire, presenting it as an accident or suicide. The groom is then free to remarry.
* In a number of countries, women who have been raped are sometimes killed by their own families to preserve the family’s honor. Honor killings have been reported in Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other Persian Gulf countries.
* According to UNICEF, 100 million to 140 million girls and women have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. Today, this practice is carried out in 28 African countries, despite the fact that it is outlawed in a number of these nations.
* Rape as a weapon of war has been used in Chiapas, Mexico, Rwanda, Kuwait, Haiti, Colombia, and elsewhere.
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