The Hard Truth.

Sometimes the best way to get people to pay attention to a world issue is by showing the hard facts. Although the facts about what is going on in the world is out there do you look? Or are you among the people who choose to ignore? I was among those who ignored until I saw these facts and felt obligated not to ignore any longer. 

This post will include only facts about violence against women from an article on the UN Women's website. I will say nothing more about these facts because they speak for themselves.

Here is the link to find out more:

http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/299-fast-facts-statistics-on-violence-against-women-and-girls-.html

Between 15 and 76 percent of women are targeted for physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the available country data. Most of this violence takes place within intimate relationships, with many women (ranging from 9 to 70 percent) reporting their husbands or partners as the perpetrator.

Femicide

• In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.
• In India, 8,093 cases of dowry-related death were reported in 2007; an unknown number of murders of women and young girls were falsely labeled ‘suicides’ or ‘accidents’.
• In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States, between 40 and 70 percent of female murder victims were killed by their intimate partners.
• In the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, 66 percent of murders of women were committed by husbands, boyfriends or other family members.

Violence and Young Women

• Worldwide, up to 50 percent of sexual assaults are committed against girls under 16.
• An estimated 150 million girls under the age of 18 suffered some form of sexual violence in 2002 alone.
• The first sexual experience of some 30 percent of women was forced. The percentage is even higher among those who were under 15 at the time of their sexual initiation, with up to 45 percent reporting that the experience was forced.

Harmful Practices

• Approximately 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting, with more than 3 million girls in Africa annually at risk of the practice.
• Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, married before the age of 18, primarily in South Asia (31.3 million) and sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 million). Violence and abuse characterize married life for many of these girls. Women who marry early are more likely to be beaten or threatened, and more likely to believe that a husband might sometimes be justified in beating his wife.

What WE Can Do!

Questions have come up from my fellow classmates about what WE can do. I put we in all caps on purpose. This is due to the fact that the biggest thing that YOU can do to help stop violence against women is to UNiTE and become a WE not a YOU. One of the biggest ways that we as students is to joining the United Nation's UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Campaign. In fact, the theme of this years INternational Women's Day promoted by this campaign was to highlight and encourage youth activism against violence on women and children. The easiest way to change a society is by changing the youth. Once the youth starts to reject the stereotypes and parts of their culture that discriminates against women, the cycle will start to change. If these youth reject these ides, these cruel ideas cannot be passed on to other generations, stopping the violence once and for all. Once the youth, like us, UNiTE and become a WE, WE are one person closer to ending this violence.

You can find out more information about the campaign and subscribe to the campaigns newsletters on the campaigns site. I strongly encourage you to read up on what this campaign is about and UNiTE. Here is the link =)
http://endviolence.un.org/index.shtml

Violence in China

China is the country with the most well known violence against women and children. If you have heard about violence against women, China is probably the first place you learned about. The violence in China is gendercide and forced abortion. This problem is rooted from China's strict child laws. In China, you are allowed one child. You may only have another child if your first is a girl. Than you have to fill out paperwork to try to get approved for another child. This exception to the one child rule was put in place to give families the chance to have a boy and carry on the family name. The problem with this rule is that it also costs money to apply for a second child. The other problem is that even if a family gets a second child, it may still be a girl. With the want for a boy to carry on the family name, girls are frowned upon. When a family cannot apply for another child, they will either force an abortion of the mother, or kill the girl so that they can try for a boy. This phenomenon in China is becoming a major problem. It is to the point that the male and female populations are vastly different. This problem came from the Chinese government and problems with over population in China. If something is not done about this problem, more and more innocent girls are going to die each day.

The Problem

    Violence against women and children is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. That is a definition about violence against omen and children from the United Nations. The root of the violence is discrimination of women. 

     Violence against women and children is a major problem in many countries including: China, Pakistan, and Somalia. The root of this problem is many years of defining women as lesser to men. This violence can include but not limited to genital mutilation, rape, murder, and physical and emotional abuse. This type of violence cannot only cause health issues but it can cause women to lose all public life do to the fear that they can be harmed at any time. Although the majority of the violence occurs in these countries and countries like it, even the United States still has issues with violence against women. The way I can help stop this violence against women around the word is to spread awareness. If people do not know about this violence, then they cannot help.