Broken bodies--broken dreams.Violence against girls and women is a pandemic pandemic /pan·dem·ic/ (pan-dem´ik) 1. a widespread epidemic of a disease. 2. widely epidemic. pan·dem·ic adj. Epidemic over a wide geographic area. n. ; one that transcends the bounds of race, culture, class, religion and location. The United Nations estimates that one in three females will be beaten or raped in her lifetime. Some 25% of girls and 8% of boys around the globe have been subjected to child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse is an umbrella term describing criminal and civil offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification. . On average, five Indian women a day are killed in "accidental" kitchen fires because dowry dowry (dou`rē), the property that a woman brings to her husband at the time of the marriage. The dowry apparently originated in the giving of a marriage gift by the family of the bridegroom to the bride and the bestowal of money upon the bride by payments have not been met. In African and other countries engaged in conflicts and war, the everyday violence experienced by girls and women in times of peace are magnified and exacerbated. Poverty and hardship in Central Asia, Eastern Europe Eastern Europe The countries of eastern Europe, especially those that were allied with the USSR in the Warsaw Pact, which was established in 1955 and dissolved in 1991. and parts of South Asia have fuelled a global trafficking industry in which exploitation and abuse is rife. The book broken bodies broken dreams; violence against women exposed, produced by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) formerly (1972–92) Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator, (1992–98) United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs , offers a powerful insight into the different types of violence experienced by countless numbers of girls and women from birth to death, worldwide. Broken bodies, broken dreams combines detailed background text, compelling photographs and shocking personal testimonies on the issues of son preference, sexual abuse of children, child prostitution and pornography, female genital mutilation female genital mutilation: see circumcision. , child marriage, violence against girls in schools, sex trafficking of women and girls, dowry crimes and bride-price abuse, intimate partner violence, crimes of 'honour', sexual assault and harassment, abuse of older women, and sexual violence in times of war. RELATED ARTICLE: CHILD MARRIAGE 'Fatima' carries her three-month-old infant on her back. Still a child herself, Fatima was forced to marry when she was nine years old. After becoming pregnant, she ran away from her husband's house to stay with her mother. She needed surgery after suffering an obstructed labour--her immature pelvis was too small to deliver a baby. Both Fatima and her mother are slaves in Niger, where an estimated 82 percent of girls marry before age 18. As is custom, Fatima's master forced her into child marriage to exploit the number of years Fatima can produce slave progeny. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RELATED ARTICLE: broken bodies--broken dreams; violence against women exposed A United Nations OCHA/IRIN publication, 2005 This publication aims to be a ripple in the global groundswell ground·swell n. 1. A sudden gathering of force, as of public opinion: a groundswell of antiwar sentiment. 2. that is forming to turn the tide of gender-based violence. It comes with accompanying training material on CD, and information packages and a media kit for journalists are also available on CD from the Integrated Regional Information Network IRIN IRIN Integrated Regional Information Networks (humanitarian news agency covering sub-Saharan Africa) IRIN Investor Relations Information Network IRIN Insurance Regulatory Information Network , email: brokenbodies@irinnews.org |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion