Violence Against Women

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN NIGERIA

FROM the womb to the grave, women fall victim to violence, according to the United Nations’ Human Development Report 1995. Studies from around the world reveal the following:

Before birth. In some countries tests are made to determine whether a fetus is male or female. Females are often aborted.

In childhood. In Barbados, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States, 1 woman in 3 reports having been sexually abused during childhood or adolescence. In Asia and elsewhere, about one million children—mostly girls—are forced into prostitution each year. Millions of girls worldwide suffer genital mutilation.

In adulthood. In Chile, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, and the Republic of Korea, 2 out of every 3 married women are victims of domestic violence. In Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, 1 woman in 6 has been raped.

In later life. More than half the women murdered in Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand were slain by past or present partners. In Africa, South America, several Pacific islands, and the United States, marital violence is a leading cause of female suicide.

Violence against women is typical of what the Bible calls “the last days,” in which many would be “abusive,” “callous,” and “brutal.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, New American Bible) We can be thankful for Jehovah God’s promise that after these troubled “last days,” he will establish a peaceful new world in which earth’s inhabitants “will actually dwell in security, with no one to make them tremble.” (Ezekiel 34:28; 2 Peter 3:13) Under God’s Kingdom, Jesus Christ will “deliver the poor one crying for help, also the afflicted one and whoever has no helper. From oppression and from violence he will redeem their soul.”—Psalm 72:12, 14.