A Look At Women In Other Cultures
...nited States, many countries have laws against men abusing women, but many countries also ignore or tolerate it. In some, abuse against women is even sanctioned by law or custom. For example it states in the book “Where Women Stand” in Chile and Pakistan 80% of women are abused by their husbands. In Bolivia, it is reported that 100,000 acts of violence against women happen each year, and 95% of those cases go unpunished. The acts of violence done by men who think they have the right to abuse women is horrible, but the violence that is sanctioned by custom is much more disturbing. Female genital mutilation is one custom that clearly shows the lack of rights that women have in some cultures. This procedure is often called the female circumcision, but when comparing it to a male circumcision it is far worse. It would be equivalent to all or most of the penis being removed, and in some cases, the tissue surrounding it as well. This practice is most common in Africa, but Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan account for three fourths of the cases. Another form of abuse against women is people killing their female babies because they want male babies. In India, 10,000 baby girls are killed each year. Another aspect of the differences of women around the world that I focused on was education. The book “Where Women Stand” it is estimated that of the 960 million illiterates in the world, two thirds are women. Literacy rated varies from country to country and also vary within region. In almost every region of the world more boys are in school compared to girls. Also, literacy rate is directly related to fertility rate. Women who are literate are more likely to use birth control methods, which results in smaller families with the children spaced farther apart. Next I focused on specific countries and women’s rights in their culture. First I looked at Afganistan, since this country seems to one of several countries I see on the news everyday I thought it would be interesting to see what the women are like there. Recently the Taliban has enforced strict Islamic rule and women have lost a majority of their rights. They now practice purdah, which is the practice of keeping women in seclusion away form society. Also they now practice burqua, which is covering women from head to toe in cloth, with a netted opening for the eyes. This uniform has directly caused more mistreatment of women, because the eye opening is restricting. Women are being attacked, and raped, and they can’t see approaching men due to their lack of peripheral vision. Women also lost the right to attend school. My next focus was the rights of women in Islam. Within the religion, men and women are equal, and women are entitled to rights. Although, in the contemporary Muslim world, many things have been taken out of context. Wome...