The abduction, rape and murder of a 29 year old woman in Melbourne, Australia at 1 am last week just around the corner from her home prompted a hug outpouring of grief and support for "freedom" of the streets today.
The terrible death of this woman also leads one to reflect on how women fare around the world.
"Consider femicide, which is the murder of women because they are women:
In the United States, one-third of women murdered each year are killed by an intimate partner.
In South Africa, a woman is killed every six hours by an intimate partner.
In India in 2007, 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related murders.
In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.
Honor killings, the murder of women for bringing shame to their families, happen all over the world, including the US.
What about slavery, which is what trafficking is?
Women and girls comprise 80 percent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked annually, with the majority (79 percent) trafficked for sexual exploitation.
This number is on the low end. The U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 2.5 million people worldwide are victims, of which over half live in Asia Pacific.
Trafficking, in the form of the importation of female sex slaves and use of children as sex workers, is on the rise in the U.S. and internationally has reached epic proportions.
Still not outraged? Because if not, there are always euphemistically titled "harmful practices" -- which are violent forms of torture and rape. For example:
Approximately 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting. Every year more than 3 million girls in Africa are at risk of the practice.
Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, another euphemism if I ever heard one, married before the age of 18, primarily in South Asia (31.1 million and Sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 million).
These numbers don't include bride burning, suspicious dowry-related "suicides" and "accidental" deaths or other hateful acts.
Now we're at plain old domestic and sexual violence:
Every nine seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year.
Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.
As many as one in four women experience physical and/or sexual violence during pregnancy, for example, which increases the likelihood of having a miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion.
Up to 53 percent of women in the world are physically abused by their intimate partners - defined as either being kicked or punched in the abdomen.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, which is so much fun to visit, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds.
In Ecuador, adolescent girls reporting sexual violence in school identified teachers as the perpetrator in 37 per cent of cases.
According to the US Department of Justice, someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes in the U.S. (overwhelmingly women). One out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. That is almost 20 percent of our population and the US Justice Department acknowledges that rape is the most underreported crime in the nation.
Worldwide, the numbers are staggering for rape and sexual assault. Especially when you take a look at rape as a tactic and weapon of war. Millions of women (and children) have been raped as the result of the systemized weaponization of men to "dishonor" their enemies. Most recently, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo alone, more than 400,000 cases of sexual violence, mostly involving women and girls, have been documented -- a rate of 48 women an hour.
Getting tired, depressed? Almost done.
At the end of the spectrum is relatively "benign" harassment, including sexual harassment at work and street harassment, which I've written about extensively in the past two months.
Between 40 and 50 per cent of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advancements, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at their workplace. Sexual harassment and street harassment are symptoms of a much deeper problem made viscerally evident by the statistics above.
In the United States, 83 per cent of girls aged 12 to 16 experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools. . Worldwide between 87% and 98% of women surveyed report persistent, aggressive street harassment that alters the course of their day, their ability to earn a living, go to school, feel safe, achieve equality."
The terrible death of this woman also leads one to reflect on how women fare around the world.
"Consider femicide, which is the murder of women because they are women:
In the United States, one-third of women murdered each year are killed by an intimate partner.
In South Africa, a woman is killed every six hours by an intimate partner.
In India in 2007, 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related murders.
In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.
Honor killings, the murder of women for bringing shame to their families, happen all over the world, including the US.
What about slavery, which is what trafficking is?
Women and girls comprise 80 percent of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked annually, with the majority (79 percent) trafficked for sexual exploitation.
This number is on the low end. The U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 2.5 million people worldwide are victims, of which over half live in Asia Pacific.
Trafficking, in the form of the importation of female sex slaves and use of children as sex workers, is on the rise in the U.S. and internationally has reached epic proportions.
Still not outraged? Because if not, there are always euphemistically titled "harmful practices" -- which are violent forms of torture and rape. For example:
Approximately 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting. Every year more than 3 million girls in Africa are at risk of the practice.
Over 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, another euphemism if I ever heard one, married before the age of 18, primarily in South Asia (31.1 million and Sub-Saharan Africa (14.1 million).
These numbers don't include bride burning, suspicious dowry-related "suicides" and "accidental" deaths or other hateful acts.
Now we're at plain old domestic and sexual violence:
Every nine seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year.
Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.
As many as one in four women experience physical and/or sexual violence during pregnancy, for example, which increases the likelihood of having a miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion.
Up to 53 percent of women in the world are physically abused by their intimate partners - defined as either being kicked or punched in the abdomen.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, which is so much fun to visit, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds.
In Ecuador, adolescent girls reporting sexual violence in school identified teachers as the perpetrator in 37 per cent of cases.
According to the US Department of Justice, someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes in the U.S. (overwhelmingly women). One out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. That is almost 20 percent of our population and the US Justice Department acknowledges that rape is the most underreported crime in the nation.
Worldwide, the numbers are staggering for rape and sexual assault. Especially when you take a look at rape as a tactic and weapon of war. Millions of women (and children) have been raped as the result of the systemized weaponization of men to "dishonor" their enemies. Most recently, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo alone, more than 400,000 cases of sexual violence, mostly involving women and girls, have been documented -- a rate of 48 women an hour.
Getting tired, depressed? Almost done.
At the end of the spectrum is relatively "benign" harassment, including sexual harassment at work and street harassment, which I've written about extensively in the past two months.
Between 40 and 50 per cent of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advancements, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at their workplace. Sexual harassment and street harassment are symptoms of a much deeper problem made viscerally evident by the statistics above.
In the United States, 83 per cent of girls aged 12 to 16 experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools. . Worldwide between 87% and 98% of women surveyed report persistent, aggressive street harassment that alters the course of their day, their ability to earn a living, go to school, feel safe, achieve equality."
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