Around The World
This is a space to create awareness and to educate people about gender inequality, gender discrimination, and violence against women – issues which violate the rights of women and girls around the world. Our aim is to to provide resources and to build a support system for everyone fighting against gender discrimination . We publish articles and posts on social and cultural issues related to gender discrimination, gender based violence and systemic oppression against women. We are here to extend our support and guidance to you to be a change maker in the society.
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Objectification and Exploitation of Girls and Women by the Mass Media and the Social Media
Objectification of Women by the Mass Media From the early nineteenth century, in television, films, printed and television commercials, and music videos, sexual objectification and exploitation of women became an increasingly growing trend. Along with objectification, different industries also started using a false and unreal image of women’s physical appearance, body image, and beauty. Today, hypersexualized and unrealistically perfect female forms are associated with products, services and programs across television and computer screens, billboards, glossy pages of magazines, video games and social media. Girls and women are dehumanized and portrayed as a commodity in these advertisements, music videos, and films – women’s bodies are used to sell everything from…
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Patrilocality: Roots of Gender Discrimination in Many Countries
In Patrilocal societies, women move to their husbands’ house and co-reside with husbands’ parents after marriage. Gender gaps in personal autonomy, education, health, and division of labor are more prominent in families and societies which are strictly Patrilocal. With marriage, almost all the girls who live with her husband’s parents and extended family, lose a great deal of their freedom, decision making power and autonomy. A girl is expected to follow the rules and norms, sometimes strict and irrelevant, set by her husband’s parents. Often, the choice of a girl’s lifestyle, starting from food habit to dressing sense and even the way she behaves or talks are questioned,…
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Gender Discrimination in Access and Consumption of Food Across Cultures
Equal access to food and nutrition is one of the core human rights. Yet, in several cultures across the world, women do not have equal access to food. There are strange taboos, discrimination and restrictions imposed only on women about the quality and quantity of food consumed by them. In most of the countries in Africa and Asia, women usually eat after feeding the male and children, as a tradition. In families where there is the scarcity of food, women usually eat only leftover food or a disproportionately lower quantity of food every day. In many countries, especially in rural areas, women are not supposed to eat in…
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Male guardianship in Saudi Arabia
What is the male guardianship rule? Women in Saudi Arabia, irrespective of their age, education or employment status, must have a male guardian, typically a father, brother, husband or uncle (mahram). Women are treated like second class citizens in Saudi Arabia. All females, girls, and women are forbidden from traveling, conducting official business, or undergoing certain medical procedures without permission from their male guardians. Women are not allowed to leave the house without a male accompany. The ownership of a woman is passed from one man to another, typically from the father or the brother to the husband. Women are treated as possessions of their male guardians.…
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Systemic Gender Discrimination Across the World
Women in many parts of the world still have a very little or no choices on their own lives. Historically, no country in the world had similar rights for men and women in all the areas. Women had to fight for equal rights and privileges in every aspect – starting from voting rights to rights to inherit their father’s property, or even to drive cars! Over the last 50 years, many reforms have improved women’s legal rights. But, according to a World Bank Report, even now in over 100 countries, women are restricted from doing certain work solely because of gender discrimination. Out of 173 countries, only 18 are…
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In Search of a Safer Place for Women
Last June, soon after coming to the United States, I joined a non-profit Organization, Rape Trauma Services, for a training to help and support the survivors of sexual assaults. This training and the subsequent experience of working as a sexual assault advocate and counselor changed my whole perspective of the status of women in western societies.
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Domestic Violence Against Women Across The World-Where Are We?
Do you know that wife-beating was legal and a very common practice in almost all countries prior to the mid-1800s? Most legal systems viewed wife-beating as a valid exercise of a husband’s authority over his wife? Women and children were seen as ‘belonging’ to a man, therefore controlling of his wife and children in the form of physical violence or punishment by a man were acceptable in religious and civil laws of all societies. Legal Documents from the Medieval Age from different regions support wife-beating was legally allowed to ‘control, correct, support and instruct’ the wife by her husband. During the 1800s, wife beating was extremely…
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Menstruation Exile in Nepal: Another Horrific Social Evil Revisited
In January 2019, a woman in Nepal died in the ‘menstruation hut’ with her 2 kids. They died of possible suffocation or carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire they lit to warm the hut in the freezing cold! Women in Nepal are forced to live in animal sheds or secluded huts in inhuman conditions, during menstruation. Chhaupadi or menstruation exile is a century old practice in Nepal, where women are banned from entering their own house, meeting any people, eating good or nutritious food and participating any social and religious events. This was not the first death of a woman in her menstruation exile in Nepal; there…
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Dowry Killings: Why Does It Happen and How Can We Prevent It?
Dowry is a social custom where a man and his family demand assets and money from the bride’s family. Even though dowry is declared illegal in India and other neighboring countries, this practice is still highly prevalent in these region. To know more about this custom, it’s background and consequences, read our post Dowry- The Leading Cause of Female Infanticides and Foeticides in Indian Sub-continent What is dowry killings ? In some cases, greed of the guy’s family persists after marriage and the demand for money or expensive items does not end after marriage . In these cases, often the girls are tortured and severely abused to…
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MeToo: A Movement Truly Helped Women to Overcome Victim Shaming
“I think only when we can shift the shame from the victims to perpetrators, the change will start there.”- Dr. Denis Mukwege In October 2018, New York time published how #MeToo movement brought down 201 powerful men in the United States. Majority of these men have harassed and assaulted women for many years and probably never imagined they would ever have to face any consequences. We have seen in the last couple of years how so many men in power and fame were accused, proven guilty, removed or resigned from their position or even sentenced as a consequence of MeToo movement. Victim blaming and shaming has not completely…
