It's 2013, and her picture is bleak. It's a picture of inequality. It's a picture of injustice.
New Zealand - She's a single mum in her late 20's, she has a degree and 2 kids. Barely surviving on the benefit. She can't afford new shoes for the kids, or a car to transport them to and from school. She's paying off debt and it's a struggle. The kids father pays child support. It's more than her benefit, but she doesn't see a cent of it. It goes straight into the governments pool ... somewhere? She's not 'entitled' to it until she has a job, of which there are none around.
Injustice
New Zealand - She's been beaten. Black and blue, again. But not where anyone can see. She's got good at hiding the bruises now. No one knows. She's withdrawn these days. She doesn't have friends, he won't let her. She doesn't have money, he controls it. Every day his hands don't beat her down, his words do. They hit hard and cut deep. She can't escape she's trapped. Domestic Violence. It's a cycle she can't break free from.
Injustice
New Zealand - It's harder for her to find a job simple because she's female. She's less likely to climb the corporate ladder if she has a family. Equal pay is a dream. Generally women earn 10% less then men.
Injustice
Cameroon, Africa - A 13 year old girl has her breasts ironed by her grandmother. The purpose; to prevent her from becoming sexually active too early. Her grandmother had warmed a small grinding stone on the fire and pressed it against her breasts. The pain was excruciating. She was left with scars. If she ever has a baby, she'll most probably struggle with mastitis and other breast complications. Mutilated. Physically and emotionally. Interestingly the ritual has had the opposite effect to that intended and in areas where the practise is common teenage pregnancy is on the rise.
Injustice
Cambodia - She's 15. Her family had run out of money. She hears about a job as a maid in Thailand through a job agent. She and some friends travel to Thailand with him, where he hands them over to a gang who take her to Kuala Lumpa. She is a victim of Human Trafficking. She is taken to a brothel and when she refuses to sleep with her first customer, (who pays more for her, than the others in the brothel because she is a young virgin) she is beaten into submission. She is given drugs to subdue her while she sees customers. She works 16 hour days, 7 days a week. She isn't given clothes so she can't run away, and she isn't given condoms to use. She will more than likely be exposed to and contract HIV.
Injustice
China - A baby girl dies. If she'd been born a boy, her chances would have been greater. If she had been born a boy her parents would have taken her to a hospital as soon as they noticed she was getting sick. That's if they hadn't already dumped her at birth. As a girl she wasn't given the same medical treatment and now she is dead. Ultrasound technicians are banned from telling parents the sex of their baby to prevent abortion of female foetuses, but instead baby girls die as infants by being denied basic necessities.
Injustice
Pakistan - A young women is accused of having a love affair after being found talking with a man in a sugar cane field, She becomes the victim of an 'honour killing' when her own brother hangs her. All in the name of keeping the families honour. It's not uncommon, other women who have brought dishonour on their families by refusing to go through with arranged marriages, demanding divorce or eloping have been hacked to death, burned alive and shot.
Injustice
Yemen- She's 8 years old and a child bride. Her husband is 26. She says goodbye to an education, to the possibility of a vocation in the future. She's more susceptible to violence and abuse within her marriage relationship having married young. The risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth increases because her body is still developing. She will quite possibly die during childbirth.
Injustice
Sudan - She's 6. The midwife that was there when she was born looks down on her. Her Grandmother and Auntie are in the room to. They hold her down as the midwife begins to circumcise her with a kitchen knife. She cuts off the little girls clitoris. Yet another practise that is all to common, Female Genital Mutilation. They hope it'll decrease her libido. The risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth later are enormous and the possibility of ending up with a fistula is more than likely.
Injustice
Congo - Rape is a tactic for war. A 4 year old girl is raped by soldiers when she tries to cross the river with her pregnant mum and sister. One after the other the soldiers do as they please with the child. Often after raping a woman or girl, soldiers will take a stick, or sharp object and insert it into the woman's vagina rupturing the vaginal wall and causing a fistula. One story reported how after raping a 3 year old girl, they placed a gun into her and fired.
Injustice
Ethiopia - She lacks adequate maternal health care. Her last baby died. She couldn't deliver, and after days of being in labour, finally a midwife arrived to assist. The baby had begun to decay inside her, and with her baby, the walls of her vagina and bowel. A fistula developed. Complications like this can result during childbirth when the mother is too young and her body hasn't fully developed yet, or because of female genital mutilation. Midwives are either small in number or don't have the skills to deal with these kind of complications. Because of the fistula she has a constant flow of fluid. She smells terrible. She is cast from society, left alone in a hutt out the back of the family home, or in the desert with the risk of being attacked by hyenas.
Injustice
She is Beautiful. She is Strong. She is gifted. She is a Woman.
And she deserves better than this!
This post is to raise awareness about the injustices faced daily by women around the globe. These stories are not contrived and they are not exaggerated. They are based on real women around the world, a global snapshot of the injustices and inequalities women face. It is just a snap shot, by no means in depth, and really does only brush the surface of what some women go through. In many instances these stories are not limited to the specific country mentioned. In some places these are culturally acceptable practises. In some countries there is positive activity happening to make right these wrongs. While the stories in western areas seem tame, (first world problems) the issue of injustice and inequality against women festers at the root. My purpose is to raise awareness so that we can stop living in ignorance and start thinking about the part we have to play in bringing about equality and justice for all.
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