One blogging-year later, I'm still fascinated to see how people end up on my blogsites (because my blogs are tiny and not world famous). One reader came to this blogsite from Singapore while doing a Google search on "the reasons for acid throwing on women". That left me wondering, is there really any reason for violence against women? A woman says no to a man and he throws acid in her face. That's a reason? I'm so baffled by this that I even looked up the word 'reason' on the web dictionary. It means "the rational motive for a belief or action". Rational is the key here. Feeling rejected, threatened, challenged,insulted, being furious... can't reasonably justify throwing acid or being violent against a woman.
Disturbing facts & figures
1 in 3 woman is a victim of gender based violence (often with the abuser know to the victim)
UNIFEM declares that universal violence against women & girls has reached proportions of an epidemic.
In 2002, the Council of Europe declared violence against women a public health emergency as the major cause of death and disability for women between the ages of 16 and 44.
World Bank report estimated that violence against women was as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill-health than traffic accidents and malaria combined.
In 2003, Center for Disease Control & Prevention estimated the cost of intimate partner violence at $5.8 billion a year ($4.1billion for direct medical & health services and $1.8billion for productivity loses.)
According to a 2005 WHO study, more than 50% of women surveyed in Bangladesh, Peru, Tanzania and Ethiopia have been victims of domestic and sexual violence.
In rural Ethiopia, 71% of women are victims of domestic and sexual violence.
700,000 women in the US are sexually assaulted (almost 15% of them before the age of 17)
An estimated 130 million women have undergone female genital mutilation and 2 million girls and women are subjected to FGM each year.
In India alone, there are an estimated 15,000 dowry-deaths.
I hope that my reader from Singapore will get the answer for his/her search - there are no reasons for violence against women!Labels: facts and figures on violence against women, Reasons for violence against women |
