Publications
Partners
Violence, dismal healthcare and brutal poverty are only some of the threats that have made Afghanistan the world's most dangerous country for women, with Congo ranking in a close second because of its horrific levels of rape in recent years.
Ongoing conflict...
"Ongoing conflict, NATO airstrikes and cultural practices combined make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women," said Clementina Cantoni, a Pakistan-based aid worker with ECHO, the European Commission's humanitarian aid department.
Gender stereotypes
"In addition, women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what's acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed."
The TrustLaw poll, run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, asked 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.
High mortality and lack of rights
Afghanistan emerged as the dodgiest overall, with respondents citing sky-high maternal mortality rates, limited access to doctors and a near total lack of economic rights as some of the country’s core perils.
Sexual violence
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4 million people, came second due to staggering levels of sexual violence where roughly 400,000 women are raped each year, according to a recent study by U.S. researchers.
"Statistics from DRC are very revealing on this: ongoing war, use of rape as a weapon, recruitment of females as soldiers who are also used as sex slaves," ECHO's Cantoni said.
"The fact that the government is corrupt and that female rights are very low on the agenda means that there is little or no recourse to justice."
Rights activists say militia groups and soldiers target all ages, including girls as young as three and elderly women. They are gang-raped, raped with bayonets and have guns shot into their vaginas.
Cultural, tribal and religious customs
Pakistan ranked third largely 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.
"Pakistan has some of the highest rates of dowry murder, so-called honor killings and early marriage," said Divya Bajpai, reproductive health advisor at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Some 1,000 women and girls die in honour killings annually, according to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.
Trafficking
India ranked fourth primarily due to female feticide, infanticide and human trafficking.
In 2009, an estimated that 100 million people, mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India that year alone.
"The practice is common but lucrative so it goes untouched by government and police," said Cristi Hegranes, founder of the Global Press institute, which trains women in developing countries to be journalists.
Forced labour and marriage
In addition to sex slavery, other forms of trafficking include forced labor and forced marriage, according to a U.S. State Department report on trafficking in 2010. The report also found slow progress in criminal prosecutions of traffickers.
Infanticide and feticide
Up to 50 million girls are thought to be "missing" over the past century due to female infanticide and feticide, the U.N. Population Fund says.
Some experts said the world's largest democracy was relatively forthcoming about describing its problems, possibly casting it in a darker light than if other countries were equally transparent about trafficking.
Genital mutilation
Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalogue of dangers including high maternal mortality, rape and female genital mutilation, along with limited access to education, healthcare and economic resources.
"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, the female genital mutilation that is being done to every single girl in Somalia. Add to that the famine and the drought. Add to that the fighting (which means) you can die any minute, any day."
*Click here for the full Reuters article.
Ongoing conflict...
"Ongoing conflict, NATO airstrikes and cultural practices combined make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women," said Clementina Cantoni, a Pakistan-based aid worker with ECHO, the European Commission's humanitarian aid department.
Gender stereotypes
"In addition, women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what's acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed."
The TrustLaw poll, run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, asked 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.
High mortality and lack of rights
Afghanistan emerged as the dodgiest overall, with respondents citing sky-high maternal mortality rates, limited access to doctors and a near total lack of economic rights as some of the country’s core perils.
Sexual violence
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4 million people, came second due to staggering levels of sexual violence where roughly 400,000 women are raped each year, according to a recent study by U.S. researchers.
"Statistics from DRC are very revealing on this: ongoing war, use of rape as a weapon, recruitment of females as soldiers who are also used as sex slaves," ECHO's Cantoni said.
"The fact that the government is corrupt and that female rights are very low on the agenda means that there is little or no recourse to justice."
Rights activists say militia groups and soldiers target all ages, including girls as young as three and elderly women. They are gang-raped, raped with bayonets and have guns shot into their vaginas.
Cultural, tribal and religious customs
Pakistan ranked third largely 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.
"Pakistan has some of the highest rates of dowry murder, so-called honor killings and early marriage," said Divya Bajpai, reproductive health advisor at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Some 1,000 women and girls die in honour killings annually, according to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.
Trafficking
India ranked fourth primarily due to female feticide, infanticide and human trafficking.
In 2009, an estimated that 100 million people, mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India that year alone.
"The practice is common but lucrative so it goes untouched by government and police," said Cristi Hegranes, founder of the Global Press institute, which trains women in developing countries to be journalists.
Forced labour and marriage
In addition to sex slavery, other forms of trafficking include forced labor and forced marriage, according to a U.S. State Department report on trafficking in 2010. The report also found slow progress in criminal prosecutions of traffickers.
Infanticide and feticide
Up to 50 million girls are thought to be "missing" over the past century due to female infanticide and feticide, the U.N. Population Fund says.
Some experts said the world's largest democracy was relatively forthcoming about describing its problems, possibly casting it in a darker light than if other countries were equally transparent about trafficking.
Genital mutilation
Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalogue of dangers including high maternal mortality, rape and female genital mutilation, along with limited access to education, healthcare and economic resources.
"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, the female genital mutilation that is being done to every single girl in Somalia. Add to that the famine and the drought. Add to that the fighting (which means) you can die any minute, any day."
*Click here for the full Reuters article.
