World's Most Dangerous Countries For Women: Thomson Reuters Foundation Survey

Afghanistan has the dubious distinction of being named the world's most dangerous country for women by an international poll of 213 gender experts from five continents.

According to a survey conducted by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by the Thomson-Reuters Foundation, Afghanistan took the top spot in light of the nation's dismal healthcare, brutal poverty and high levels of violence against women. "Ongoing conflict, Nato airstrikes and cultural practices combined make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women," Antonella Notari, head of Women Change Makers, a group that supports women social entrepreneurs around the world, told the BBC. "In addition, women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what is acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed," she added.

Still, some authorities were surprised by the poll's findings -- among them Maryan Qasim, exiled women's minister of Somalia, which came in fifth. "If I was asked where is the most dangerous place to be a woman, I would have said with certainty Somalia," she is quoted by Reuters as saying, before going on to describe her nation as "living hell" for women.

View the world's most dangerous countries for women, including facts about each nation as reported by TrustLaw, below:

Loading Slideshow

• Afghanistan - #1

  An estimated 87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate. Source: <a href="http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/">Thomson Reuters Foundation Services </a>

• Congo - #2

  An estimated 1,152 women are raped in the Democratic Republic of Congo each day. Source: <a href="http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/">Thomson Reuters Foundation Services </a>

• Pakistan - #3

  Women earn a staggering 82 percent less than men. Source: <a href="http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/">Thomson Reuters Foundation Services </a>

• India - #4

  An estimated 44.5 percent of Indian women are married before the age of 18. Source: <a href="http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/">Thomson Reuters Foundation Services </a>

• Somalia - #5

  In Somalia, 95 percent of women face genital mutilation between the ages of 4 and 11. Source: <a href="http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/womens-rights/dangerpoll/">Thomson Reuters Foundation Services </a>

Comments

[iowahospitalist]

03:50 AM on 06/27/2011

And #6 USA, cause 45 % of child births out of wedlock and then women are miserable, oh wait the children are miserable , sometime with daddy and sometime with mommy....

[BrassOnes]

07:55 PM on 06/19/2011

On the up side, women's skin cancer rates are very low.

[RubalKhali]

06:26 AM on 06/19/2011

This survey is flawed, to say the least. It polled 'gender experts' on their 'overall perceptions' Only one is on the list for sexual violence, the Congo with 1152 rapes a day, rape is looked upon as a weapon of war and there may be as many as 200,000 victims of the cuurrent conflict( where this number comes from they do not say as most Congolese rape victims do not report the rape because of the social stigma) According to the U.S. Department of Justice(2006) there were 192,320 rapes or attempted rapes and 68,620 sexual assaults that year.Leaving American women marginally safe than Congolese women and far more likely to be raped than Indias,Afghanis,Somalis,or Pakistanis.

[gharison43]

04:56 AM on 06/25/2011

To be fair, Congo has a little over 4 million people (source: www.theodora.com), while America has something like 370 million, so of course our numbers are going to be greater. America certainly has its flaws, but at least I can live here and go to school, get a job, sing, drive, wear t-shirts, etc, and not worry about having acid poured on my face. Therefore, I don't think it's fair to say that women in America are "marginally" more safe than the poor women of Congo, India, and pretty much every Muslim or African country.

[RubalKhali]

05:42 AM on 06/25/2011

I atually agree with you. American women are safer by far. The statistics do not lie, which is where my marginally comment is based.Many parts of America are much safer than others.I was picked up by police in Chicago for being in the wrong area with the wrong color skin, protecctive custudy lets say, and I have been to the Congo and other African countries and the povert and lack of well being is palpable.My main point is that the survey is flawed.No one knows how many women are targetted in the Congo, or the U.S.,it is underreported because of the social stigma.

[Inlikeflint64]

03:56 AM on 06/19/2011

Share this article with Amy Sullivan HP contributor HP she doesn't believe in bad people!

[Progressneeded]

01:35 AM on 06/19/2011

Humans, a cruel species. The more I live the more alienated I feel from them. Some days I even pray for armageddon so that the Earth may be free of the human parasite!

[p mantis]

05:02 AM on 06/19/2011

"And I think we ought to become 'syphilis with a conscience' and stop reproducing" - Kurt Vonnegut
Some days I agree.

[LINY01]

02:06 PM on 06/19/2011

I hear ya. You are not alone. I feel the same and I bet there are more of than not.

[RubalKhali]

01:26 AM on 06/19/2011

1 in 6 women in the United States has experienced an attempted or completed sexual assault. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Somewhere in America a woman is battered, usually by her intimate partner, every 15 seconds. (United Nations Study on the Status of Women, 2000)
Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 90 seconds. (US Department of Justice, 2000)
According to the Justice Department, 1 in 2 rape victims is under 18; 1 in 6 is under 12. (Child rape victims, 1992)
Battering is the leading cause of injury to women aged 15 to 44 in the United States. (US Surgeon General, 1992)

[marie phd]

05:22 AM on 06/19/2011

And half the country are trying to deny those raped women an abortion.

[RubalKhali]

06:27 AM on 06/19/2011

Mostly by men too.

[camaretta]

10:09 PM on 06/18/2011

Let's be clear; "women are raped every day . . ." Not an accurate statement. No one, especially journalists, should describe rape in passive voice. Such a report should always read "Men rape women. . ." Tell who the men are, where they came from, everything possible about the criminals. Rape doesn't happen. Men DO it. Never stop saying that.

[RubalKhali]

01:15 AM on 06/19/2011

Interestingly none of these counties show up on this list,http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita

[StrawHat]

12:01 PM on 06/19/2011

I know that my case is vanishingly rare, but I (a woman of a certain age) was sexually assaulted by a sixteen-year-old GIRL while walking in a mall. The police and my trauma counselor agree that it was probably part of a gang initiation as she was being egged on by a group of kids at a distance, most of whom appeared to be between the ages of 14 and 18.

I mention this only because while 95 percent of the time, rape and sexual assault are perpetrated by males on females, occasionally females are the perps and/or males are the victims.

Of course, regardless of the gender of assailant or victim, it is ALWAYS wrong, evil and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law with humane treatment ALWAYS of the victims by society and the judicial system.

I also understand that we live in a patriarchal world, for the most part, and that violence against women and children by men is epidemic on this planet. I judge human civilization by how the weaker, smaller, less powerful people are treated by the stronger, bigger, more-powerful people.

We have made some good progress in some places, but overall we have a LONG way to go.

[ufopp]

09:11 PM on 06/18/2011

If conservatives keep up the current trend in anti-women legislation in our state houses, we'll soon join this list.

[marie phd]

05:24 AM on 06/19/2011

I am wondering how far down the list the US is.

[RubalKhali]

06:28 AM on 06/19/2011

# 10 per capita,http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita

[pene]

06:40 PM on 06/18/2011

I still don't understand why female circumcision is called mutilation and is frowned on but when it is males, it is circumcision and it's just fine because it is a religious practice.

isn't cutting cutting or am I missing something?

[Kellybelle22]

09:18 PM on 06/18/2011

Cutting IS cutting, and most medical professionals with sense now decry both practices, but FGM is generally a more extensive, and riskier, amateur surgery than male foreskin removal. Personally, I wish both practices could be abolished throughout the world because they both involve unnecessary mutilation. They make no sense, but religious and tribal traditions are far harder to break than medical ones.

You can read about the types of FGM here if you can stand to:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/

[pene]

10:35 PM on 06/18/2011

thanks. I know what female mutilation is. My point is that once again, religion and especially cruelty to children through religious dogma, trumps humane behavior.

[shaunmarie]

06:17 AM on 06/19/2011

Yes, you are.

Male circumcision, while something I disapprove of, removes a small amount of foreskin from the penile sheath. While it possibly reduces some amount of sensitivity, the penis' still function just swell. Men are still able to derive deep sexual pleasure, are able to orgasm, and it appears that it also provides some amount of reproductive protection against disease and infection. Finally, these circumcisions are done in a safe and generally humane manner (in fact, most of the time these days it is done pretty painlessly and bloodlessly)

Lets compare this with the kidnapping of a 4 - 11 year old girl, held down, her entire labia - inner and outer, sliced off with a filthy sharpened piece of scrap, and then sewn shut with thorns - leaving only enough of a passage for urine (sort of) - leaving the woman in such a situation as to need to be sliced open again for sex.

The purpose of female circumcision is not cleanliness (as with males) - but to prevent sexual pleasure and to insure that she remains chaste property.

Though I chose not to have circumcision done on my child, I am more than sick of the comparison between male circumcision and FGM - there IS NO COMPARISON.so knock it off!

[pene]

09:29 AM on 06/19/2011

If you define these practices strictly in terms of the physcial actions taken against the children, there is no comparison.
If you define these acts within their social context, there is no difference. They are usually religiously motivated and my point was that we sanction it when it is judeo-xtian but not when it is pantheistics.
You will NOT succeed in ending this practice unless you attack it from multiple fronts. Therefore, I ask you to "knock off" your narrow view point which will eventually produce only a handful of refugees to more progressive countires and open your mind to all the factors having an impact on these primitive practices.

[schatsie]

09:43 AM on 06/19/2011

F&F for such a literate presentation of the differences! Keep up the good work!

[nikau nikau]

05:20 PM on 06/18/2011

Well, 4 of those 5 are declared or very-recently former warzones. I can't imagine anyone being safe in a conflict region.

[Yanni Sarah]

04:44 PM on 06/18/2011

Where is Code Pink or the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.)??? This is why my household stopped contributing to them about 10 years ago. These organizations care NOTHING about women...only about killing their party of choice. Women EVERYWHERE should be as free as men are. Unfortunately, our so called, "Women's rights" groups in the United Stated don't care about women at all. They are nothing more than politics. Shameful.

[Wanjiru]

03:19 PM on 06/18/2011

I can't imagine that you listed only 5 countries.

- What about countries like South Africa - with the highest rape-per-capita statistics?

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_percap-crime-rapes-per-capita

- What about countries like the Phillipines and Thailand - with some of the highest rates of human trafficking?

- What about (other) countries with high Female Genital Mutilation rates, like Liberia, Sudan, Egypt and Sierra Leone?

http://www.blatantworld.com/feature/the_world/female_genital_mutilation.html

- What about countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, with some of the highest refugee popuations?

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_ref-immigration-refugees

... etc, etc ...

There are many countries and regions in the world where women are facing all forms of torture and suffering everyday. I find a "list" such as this to be incredibly simplistic in highlighting these places AND the types of abuses women are confronted with everyday.

It is part of that whole Top Ten, Best Ever, Worst Ever, Most Hilarious - lists syndrome the US likes to employ to different subjects. Such lists work best for entertainment purposes - they are even fun.

Crimes against women is not entertainment, and should therefore not be trivialized by being included in these types of simplistic lists.
.

[GeorgieMark]

03:36 AM on 06/19/2011

While I ascribe 100% to what you say, still there is a long way to go before women can undo millennia of misogyny and sexual oppression, the feminist movement has to go up against powerful organisations such as religion and tradition (again a religiously tainted byproduct).

One step at a time my good woman, one step at a time.

F&F

[rosebud081]

02:04 PM on 06/18/2011

I think that we need to form an world alliance and set these women free!

[littlebrowngirl]

01:26 PM on 06/18/2011

Very disturbing.

[exmate]

01:03 PM on 06/18/2011

Certain religions do not allow women to become clergy, do not allow members of the clergy to engage in normal sexual relations and have sanctioned burning women at the stake as witches