jan 24.01 / may 27.02 / jan 17.04 / apr 09.06

violence against women
it's not cultural, it's criminal

in many places in the world today,

if you're a woman, you have no voice

according the the world health organization, in the year 2000,

and to date nothing much has changed:

violence causes more death to women ages 15-44

than cancer, malaria, and war

a raped female is often considered more *guilty* than her rapist

5,000 girls and women were murdered because they were raped.

the rape dishonored their families

in nigeria,

in the fall of 2000 a seventeen year old unmarried girl was

sentenced to be beat/caned 180 times for the crime of adultry

at her trial, her guilt was obvious, as she was pregnant. the

three men who she named as her lovers were all acquitted of

the crime when they each swore on the koran that she was lying.

the girl stated her father had pressured her to have sex with the

men. a woman's word is always give less weight than a man's in

this type of society. her sentence of 180 strikes of the cane was

reduced to 100 as an accommodation to cries of outrage from

the human rights community, and was carried out 1/23/2001

in jordan, morocco, and syria,

husbands can kill their wives for adultery

in ethiopia, lebanon, and uruguay

a rapist is protected from prosecution if he marries his victim

in india, malaysia, serbia, papua, and new guinea

martial rape is allowed

in israel

a woman cannot seek divorce without her husband's permission

in some countries

it is considered dishonorable for a woman to seek divorce,

all a member of her family needs to kill her. and 'honor' killings

occur for many other 'dishonor' offenses, such as the women

being out of the house on her own, without an escourt, or wanting

to marry someone other than the person her family has picked out

for her, frequently a much older man. often the women hasn't done

anything 'wrong' at all, it takes only rumour and suspicion for the

family to feel that they must defend their 'honor' by killing their

own. every year thousands of women are murdered in the name

of 'honor', and the murderers show no remorse whatsoever;

murders for which they recieve little or no punishment

in pakistan

3/4s of the women in prison are there because they were raped

in bangladesh

3-5 women a week are mutilated with sulfuric or nitric acid

when the woman rejects a proposal, ignores a man, or even

refuses flowers. the women are left blind, deaf, even dead,

or left horribly disfigured for life

about 2 million girls younger than 15

are forced into prostitution every year, some sold by their own

families. in india where prostitution is legal, a 12 year old girl

could service as many as 40 customers a day

the price of youth, the brothels of india, in nepal,

behind this seeming shangri-la lies the shocking reality

known as the flesh trade. 5,000 to 6,000 girls of nepal, some

as young as seven years old, are trafficked to india each year

and are sold as sex slaves. they are often sold to traffickers

by a close relative or family friend. the majority of the girls

become infected with hiv. they are prized in india for their

fair skin. their destination is kamathipura lamba, "the cages".

inside this labyrinth of lanes and alleyways, virtually any

sexual service can be found for the right price. from beggar

to the world's richest sheiks, there is an increasing demand

for younger girls and virgins, fueled by a popular belief that

having sexual intercourse with children will prevent sexual

diseases and even cure aides. upon arrival to these brothels

the girls are broken in and their their nightmare begins. gang

rapes, burning with cigarettes and acid and beatings are the

final initiation for new girls who resist having sex with the

clients. girls are forced to sleep with as many as 20 men a

day so the brothel can recoup what they paid the trafficker.

living conditions are inhumane. the new girls are often locked

in cramped cubicles behind iron bars and fed only one meal

a day. a girl who became pregnant was forced to have an

abortion, and as soon as it was over, was forced continue

having sex with the clients even as she lie sick and bleeding

from the abortion

in some countries in africa and the middle east

more than 130 million girls have undergone the old tradition

of female genital mutilation also called female circumcision.

it remains one of the most horrific offenses against young

women in the world, performed in the belief that woman's

sexuality should be controlled, the clitoris is cut off and

sometimes the vagina is sewn shut. the woman then has no

sexual desire and only a small opening through which to urinate

it is most often performed in a barbaric manner with razor blades,

no sterilization, no anesthesia. the procedure is excruciating and

in many cases fatal. if the woman is fortunate enough to survive

the shock, she can be plagued with dangerous infections, bleeding,

sever pain with urination, urinary tract infections, painful sexual

intercourse, possible infertility, not to mention emotional scars

that may never heal. in most cases the girl/child has no choice,

her only defense a blood curdling scream, as ceremonial markings

are carved into her little body before her clitoris is cut

* in kuwait

Tuesday, April 04, 2006 Kuwaiti women vote for the first time

women could not vote in 2000, they can now! hurray some progress!!

BUT
in the year 2006

the violence against women
continues...

it's not cultural, it's criminal

this is how women and girls are existing in the world right now,

this day, this month, in the year 2006.

we can no long use the excuse "we didn't know"

"how long?

how long must we sing this song?"


equality now violence against women

international justice mission maiti nepal

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