I guessed 3 out of five correctly. Forgot about Somalia … dangerous for EVERYONE there … and didnt think of India, somehow it seems more civilized despite the endemic poverty and sexism … I mean, those two things are characteristic of just about all Third World countries. Guessed Iran and Saudi Arabia would be on the list because of their rank sexism, but perhaps they’re less virulent in their treatment of most of their women than others. But I was under the impression that they still stoned women to death for adultery in Iran and Saudi Arabia and that a woman could still get a jail sentence for having the effrontery to be a rape victim in those countries.
oh i didn’t even think like that…
I think that you underestimate the prevalence of violence towards women in India, especially in rural areas. Dowry not large enough? Your in-laws might chain you up in the kitchen and feed you the scraps the dogs won’t eat. Or generally make your life so miserable that you “commit suicide” [read: the women are murdered, but the event is written off as a suicide] by sitting on the stove or drink rat poison. This happens thousands of times a year (though rarely to the same woman …). There is a burn victim hospital near Varanasi in UP that treats around 2.000 women a year - the population of the district is probably around 2.5 million. I suppose it could be that the kerosene stoves sold in the area are particularly prone to malfunctioning, but unfortunately that isn’t very likely.
Being a woman in rural Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or Jharkhand is not attractive at all.
Crap study, crap journalism. Next!
My guess was: Somalia, D.R. Congo, Afghanistan, C.A.R., Burundi. Pretty close. I lived in the Mid East and Iran was never even close to being on my list… but Congo and Somalia are there for both women and men.
I know, you said salwar kameez was verboten. But then what are you SUPPOSED to wear? Those long Muslim skirts, I forget what they are called? They are not quite lenghas or ghagaras but they reach the floor and are sort of straight from the waist to the knees.
I mean salwar kameez is not indecent if you wear the right kind. Baggy, loose pants, and a loose tunic that almost reaches the knees, with a chunni of course. Do we have to cover our heads? Because I don’t do that even in India.
Hardly. Ever heard of “eve teasing”? Only in India would random sexual harassment of women walking on streets be dismissed as mere teasing, especially when it usually involves making lewd gestures, shouting obscenities and groping as well. India is a lousy country to be a woman in, no matter which section of the society you belong to. And if you are a pale-skinned (read “beautiful by Indian standards”) woman of Indian origins or wearing a skirt (even a modest one reaching below your knees), God help you, because Indian “authorities” certainly won’t.
It is for residence.
The thought processes of a woman who has the “balls to complain” about how she was treated when she was “travelling alone and dressing immodestly” is that she had assumed that she was travelling among civilised folk and that she was expecting to be treated like any other human being,
The requirement that a woman necessarily travel with an escort to ensure her safety, alone indicates how poorly that particular society treats women. Add to it the need to dress “modestly” (whatever that be) and it is clear that the primary function of women in such a society is to serve as sex objects – men in that society will absolved of all blame because she was “asking for it”.
Yes, I never went shopping alone or even down the street alone when I went to India. And I loved my visits, don’t get me wrong, but I am a light-skinned Indian and I got an incredible amount of attention. Once I was walking with my cousinbrother and a guy sort of skidded his motorcycle in front of me, by accident. Totally by accident. My cousin was all up in his face in an instant, and the thing that struck me, was the guy was totally apologetic - he probably knew exactly how it looked, probably had a sister that similar things happened to.
The one thing good about India is that there is at least a trend and an attempt at improving. The laws are in place and efforts are being made by the government and public institutions to change the place of women in the society and the way they are treated. Over a period of time, especially with the economic situation becoming better, these ills will likely resolve themselves.
In the case of fundamentally Islamic countries on the other hand, like Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia etc., the problem is that there seems to be no attempt at the government level, or the society in general, to improve the situation. The way women are treated in these places is something that the people, including the governments, find acceptable and have no desire to change.
The Trustlaw website link provides a few more details on what figured into each country’s inclusion.
Some of them seem a bit odd: How significant is it that the Somali parliament is only 7.5% women? Certainly, that’s an injustice, but how much does the parliament in Somalia matter to anyone? (Not that this necessarily affects the ultimate conclusions – a 95% rate of genital mutilation should be enough to put it at the top of the list even absent any other factors).
The entry for India mentions 50 million girls lost in the past century due to female infanticide and “foeticide.” The inclusion of abortion as a factor (unless it’s forced, of course) seems at least open to question, even if it is sex-selective. (Again, this is not to discount the other forms of danger faced by women in India).
I have had similiar behavior happen to me in the United States with similiar indifference from the police. It’s not just India.
I, too, am surprised that most of the western world isn’t on the list. What, with rape practically being our primary form of greeting.
Seriously, ZPGZ - there is a very great distance between the actions you consider inappropriate to the behaviour the women from these countries have to face. I do realize that you are subjected to behaviour that for some odd reason you deem inappropriate, but insisting on the similarity to some of the situations mentioned in this thread seems to be nothing but mockery of these people who are facing real gender related problems. A little fine-tuning of your sense of proportion is urgently needed.
I really wanted to say something, but I refrained, but I agree. There is not even a remote similarity to what women face here in the States and what they face in India, and it’s rather offensive to equate the two. If it happened once or twice here in the States, it happens every day, every time they go to market or step out of their house or do anything. And I say this as someone with much love for India, but yes, the eve teasing is BAD. And humiliating. And heaven forbid if you get caught out by yourself. Not to mention that then society thinks it’s your fault and you are considered cheap and low-class.
To compare that to the States is insulting and offensive to the women of India. In its defence, India is trying to change - there are huge governmental agencies trying to make things better. But education is the only route.