The international commemoration of the Day for the Eradication of Violence against Women multiplied this Friday the appeals to combat this scourge, but reveals a world panorama in which the sexist crimes do not recede in any continent and they extend to all kinds of countries, beyond such impressive examples as Iran and Afghanistan.
EUROPE
One in three women in the EU has suffered physical or sexual violence and one in five girls experiences sexual abuse, according to a joint statement by the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, warning that online violence is increasing, such that one in two young women suffers gender-based cyber violence.
In Italy, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarellalaunched an appeal to end violence against women when in the country there are 88 victims of sexist violence so far this year, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
A survey published in Austria also reveals that one in three women in this country of 9 million inhabitants has ever been a victim of physical or sexual violence and one in six is ​​affected by threats of physical violence.
AFRICA
Where sexist violence hits the most in the world is in Africa, the continent where they are located some of the poorest countries on the planet, whose States, in many cases, do not provide effective care services to victims.
According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), a 36% of African women between the ages of 15 and 49 suffered from it at least once in their life, compared to 31% of the whole planet.
This scourge especially affects the Democratic Republic of the Congo (47%), Equatorial Guinea (46%) and Uganda (45%). In addition, child marriage and female genital mutilation continue to be practiced in Africa, which registers 80% of its cases on this continent, with countries such as Somalia and Guinea-Conakry at the forefront.
In Morocco, where deaths due to sexist violence are not counted, the revision of the law to combat gender violence is one of the main demands of the feminist movement, in order to stop a violation of rights that 7.6 million women suffer, 57%.
IRAN
Iran did not celebrate this day, amid the repression of the protests sparked by the death in September Mahsa Amini after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic headscarf properly, Mandatory garment in the country. Shouting “woman, life, freedom”, the protests call for the end of the Islamic Republic, which discriminates against women in numerous areas and does not collect data on domestic violence.
Beyond the mandatory veil, Iranian women need their husband’s permission to work or leave the country, they find it more difficult to divorce and their presence is scarce in government bodies.
AFGHANISTAN
In Afghanistan, the United Nations urged the Taliban government on Friday to put an end to violence against women and to put an end to the general deterioration of their rights, especially diminished after the rise to power of fundamentalists, who decreed measures such as the prohibition of secondary education for adolescents, the veto in a large number of jobs or the imposition of the burqa.
The brutality that the Taliban exert on Afghan women is the worst in the world and has worsened in recent months, according to several organizations that independently monitor the situation of women’s rights.
INDIA AND CHINA
India lives this Friday shocked by the brutal murder of a 26-year-old girl at the hands of her boyfriend, who dismembered her body and he scattered its parts throughout New Delhi. These types of crimes are no exception in a country where 428,278 women reported in 2021 having been victims of violence, 15% more than the previous year, according to data from the National Crime Records Agency (NCRB).
In China, this Friday the popular Sino-Canadian singer and actor Kris Wu was sentenced for rape and, during the last year, cases such as that of a woman chained to her neck in a rural area of ​​Jiangsu province (east) and that of women beaten in a restaurant in the city of Tangshan (north) outraged the population and led to demands for greater protection for women and children.
LATIN AMERICA
Latin America It stands out in this context for being the only region in the world where forced marriages have not decreased in the last 25 years, according to data from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Brazil, one of the most dangerous countries for women in the world, although statistics show gradual improvements year after year, in 2021 it registered 1,319 femicideswhich means the murder of one woman every seven hourswith 1.22 deaths per 100,000 women, according to data from the NGO Brazilian Public Safety Forum
In Venezuela, every 37 hours a woman dies from hands of feminicidesalthough the general rates of violence have dropped considerably, while the murders of women are increasingly bloody in a country with insufficient laws to eradicate this scourge and where feminist organizations stress the obstacles that those who survive attacks must overcome.
Argentina suffers similar rates of sexist crimes, where women’s groups march this Friday in cities across the country against this violence, which in the last twelve months has caused 300 femicides and related deaths of women and girls.
Chile is pending the processing of the bill for the right to a life free of violence and, although the number of annual femicides fell in the last year, complaints of sexual crimes increased by 29%, according to data from the Investigative Police .
In Peru, 54.9% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 has ever been a victim of sexist violence, according to a national survey: in 26.7% of the cases it was physical, in 50.8% psychological and in 5.9% sexual.
Also in Bolivia, sexual violence increased from "sustained form", up to 51% in the last five years, according to a study by a coordinator that brings together 26 organizations that defend equality.
In the Dominican Republic, which in 2020 was the second country in Latin America with the highest rate of femicides, 2.4 women murdered per 100,000 inhabitants, the United Nations Office in the Dominican Republic has called on "act firmly" in the face of demonstrations of violence that this year "they have shaken" to Dominican society.
And in Puerto Rico, Governor Pedro Pierluisi has decreed the extension until June 30, 2023 of the state of emergency in the face of alarming data that has raised the number of reported femicides in a year from 53 to 70 on an island of just over 3 million inhabitants.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
Australia, where 40 sexist crimes have been committed so far this year, approved a law in October with aid for victims. And the Parliament of the New South Wales region agreed last week to sentences of up to seven years in prison for those who violate the autonomy of a person.
For its part, New Zealand has been designated by the UN as a country with high levels of violence against women, with cases affecting a third of the female population.