Discrimination against women - 10 worst countries

Despite tangible progress around the globe, the root problems of discrimination against women that have existed for centuries remain.


The image of a woman of the 21st century is confident, successful, shining with beauty and health. But for many of the 3.3 billion beautiful women who inhabit our planet, the benefits of the century of cybernetics remain inaccessible. They continue to experience centuries of violence, oppression, isolation, violent illiteracy and discrimination.

"It's happening everywhere," says Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of the New York-based Equality Now. "There is no country where a woman could feel completely safe."

Despite tangible progress on women's rights around the globe - improved laws, political participation, education and income - the root problems of women's humiliation that have existed for centuries remain. Even in rich countries, there are foci of private pain, when a woman is unprotected, and is attacked.

In some countries - as a rule, in the poorest and most affected by conflict, the level of violence reaches such a degree that the life of women becomes simply unbearable. Rich people can burden them with repressive laws or sweep up the problems of the least protected stratum of the population under the carpet. In any country, a refugee woman is one of the most vulnerable people.

The difficulties are so widespread that it is difficult to single out the worst places for women in the world. In some studies, their problems are assessed by the quality of life, in others - by health indicators. Groups for the protection of human rights point to countries where such gross violations of human rights are taking place, that even murder is considered to be in the order of things.

Literacy is one of the best indicators of the status of women in the country. But, according to Cheryl Hotchkiss, a participant in the Canadian section of the campaign for women's rights Amnesty International, school construction alone is not enough to solve the problem of equal education.
"A woman who wants to get an education faces a lot of different problems," she says. "Education can be free and affordable, but parents will not send their daughters to school if they can be kidnapped and raped."

Health is another key indicator. This also includes caring for pregnant women, who are sometimes forced to engage in early fatal marriages and bear children, and also get AIDS / HIV. But again, statistics can not reflect the whole picture.
"On a lake in Zambia, I met a woman who did not tell her husband that she was infected with HIV," says David Morley, executive director of the Canadian branch of Save the Children, David Morley. "She already lived on the edge, since she had no children. If she told her husband, she would be thrown out of the island and sent to the mainland. He understood that she has no choice, because there is absolutely no right. "

Supporters agree that to improve the lives of women in all countries, it is necessary to give them rights. Whether it is the poorest countries in Africa, or the most repressive countries of the Middle East or Asia, the lack of the ability to manage one's own destiny is what destroys women's lives from early childhood.

Below I will list a list of 10 countries in which to be a woman today is the worst:

Afghanistan : on average, an Afghan woman lives up to 45 years - this is one year less than an Afghan man. After three decades of war and religious repression, the vast majority of women are illiterate. More than half of all brides have not yet reached the age of 16. And every half hour one woman dies at childbirth. Domestic violence is so widespread that 87% of women admit to suffering from it. On the other hand, there are more than a million widows on the streets, often forced to engage in prostitution. Afghanistan is the only country where the suicide rate of women is higher than the suicide rate of men.

Democratic Republic of the Congo : in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a war broke out, already claimed more than 3 million lives, and women in this war are on the front line. Rape is so frequent and cruel that UN investigators call them unprecedented. Many victims die, others become infected with HIV and remain alone with their children. Because of the need to procure food and water, women are even more often subjected to violence. Having no money, no transport, no connections, they can not be saved.

Iraq : the US invasion of Iraq in order to "liberate" the country from Saddam Hussein has plunged women into the hell of sectarian violence. The level of literacy - once the highest among the Arab countries, has now dropped to the lowest level, because families are afraid to send girls to school, fearing that they can be abducted and raped. Women who used to work sit at home. More than a million women have been evicted from their homes, and millions are unable to earn their living.

Nepal : early marriages and childbirth deplete the poorly nourished women of the country, and one in 24 perishes during pregnancy or during childbirth. Unmarried daughters may be sold before they reach adulthood. If a widow receives the nickname "bokshi", which means "witch", she faces extremely cruel treatment and discrimination. A small civil war between the government and the Maoist rebels forces women peasant women to join guerrilla groups.

Sudan : Despite the fact that Sudanese women received some improvement due to reformist laws, the situation of the women of Darfur (West Sudan) has only worsened. The kidnapping, rape and forced evictions since 2003 have destroyed the lives of more than a million women. The Janjaweeds (Sudanese militants) use regular rape as a demographic weapon, and it is almost impossible to obtain justice for the victims of these rapes.

Among other countries where women's lives are much worse than men's lives, Guatemala is listed, where women from the lowest and poorest segments of society suffer from domestic violence, rape and have a second incidence of HIV / AIDS among sub-Saharan Africa. In the country, an epidemic of terrible, unsolved murders is raging, in which hundreds of women are killed. Near the bodies of some of them find notes full of hatred and intolerance.

In Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, few women manage to avoid painful circumcision of the genitals, many are forced to enter early marriages, and one in ten women dies during pregnancy or during childbirth.

In the tribal border areas of Pakistan, women are subjected to group rape as punishment for crimes committed by men. But even more common are the murders of "honor" and a new wave of religious extremism, aimed at women politicians, human rights organizations and lawyers.

In oil-rich Saudi Arabia , women are treated as lifelong dependents under the guardianship of a male relative. Deprived of the right to drive a car or publicly communicate with men, they lead a strictly limited life, suffering from harsh punishments.

In the capital of Somalia, the city ​​of Mogadishu, a terrible civil war has put women, who have traditionally been considered the mainstay of the family, under attack. In a split society, women are subjected to daily rape, suffer from dangerously poor care during pregnancy and are attacked by armed bandits.

"While the potential of women is recognized internationally," says World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan, "it will not be realized until the living conditions in countries and communities improve, and often radical changes are required. Too many complex factors, entrenched in social and cultural norms, continue to be an obstacle for women and girls to realize their potential and benefit from social progress. "