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Congo, Somalia among top-5 worst places to be a woman
A survey of international gender experts carried out by TrustLaw has ranked countries according to how dangerous it is to be woman in them
A Congolese woman walks down the main road in Luvungi, a village in eastern Congo, where hundreds of women were raped during an attack by a militia group last year. The widespread sexual violence in Congo has put it in the top-5 of the world’s worst places to be a woman according to a new report.
Marc Hofer
A new survey of experts that ranks countries according to the treatment of women has found that Congo and Somalia are in the top-5 most dangerous places in the world to be a woman.
The survey by TrustLaw found that Afghanistan is the worst place to be a woman followed closely by Congo then Pakistan, India and Somalia.
This infographic explains why each country was ranked as it was.
Congo’s dismal ranking is down to “staggering levels of sexual violence” the survey reported, citing statistics that say 1,150 women are raped every day.
In Somalia 20-years of civil war have left it “one of the poorest, most violent and lawless countries” in the world.
Poor health facilities and statistics showing that 95% of women suffer the cultural practice of female genital mutilation ensured Somalia was also among the most dangerous places to be a woman.
Terrible as these findings are they are not a big surprise. The placing of India at number 4 – worse than Somalia – is. Trafficking and the murder of female children in a country where boys are favoured account for India’s ranking.
TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation, surveyed 213 gender experts to compile its ranking.