WOMENS ISSUES
BANGLADESH
In South Africa a women is raped on average every 17 seconds.
Jilted Bangladesh men are using acid against women who dare to say no.
Acid has become a common weapon against women in this country, where destroying a girls face appears an acceptable way to get even.
The police say 180 women were burnt in attacks with sulfuric and hydrochloric acid last year alone.
The offenders throw acid to destroy the faces of women and shatter their dreams for not allowing the criminals to abuse them physically, or for the women's inability to bring handsome dowry from their parents.
SUDAN
A five year old Sudanese girl lies on a bed as she undergoes the procedure known as female genital
mutilation.
In this procedure, performed without anaesthesia, a girl's external sexual
organs are partially or totally cut away.
Female Genital Mutilation has been performed on 82 per cent of
Sudanese women.
Up to 114 million girls and women in more than 30 countries have been
subjected to female genital mutilation.
It is commonly attributed to religious edict.
It is estimated that untrained traditional
birth attendants perform two thirds of the procedures. They
typically have limited knowledge of health and hygiene and often
use inadequately cleaned traditional instruments. Side effects
include trauma, bleeding and haemorrhage; pain, stress and
shock; infections (which can be fatal); painful and difficult
sexual relations; obstructed labour and difficult childbirth; and
psychological trauma.
The practice was declared illegal in the Sudan in 1941, but
that did little to stop it. About 90 per cent of northern Sudanese
women have had it done.
JORDAN :
About 25 women are killed every year in Jordan, usually by their brothers or fathers, on suspicion of having illicit sexual relations. A mere rumour of misconduct is often enough to spark a murder.
According to human rights activists, women can be murdered by their brothers for as little as having a secret tryst or even receiving a phone call from a young man.
RAPE :
Up to 20 % of women in the US experience rape at least once in their life.
In Canada it is estimated at least 40 % of women will be raped at least once in their lifetime.
Below is a country breakdown of the slavery and trafficking of people around the world.
