Most dangerous countries for women: why Nigeria is ranked ninth in the world
The Thomson Reuters Foundation has ranked Nigeria ninth as the most dangerous country for women in a recently released poll.
No fewer than 548 experts were contacted in the global perception poll to highlight the most dangerous countries for women.
India was ranked as the worst,number 1, other countries ahead of Nigeria in the ranking are Afghanistan (2), Syria (3), Somalia (4), Saudi Arabia (5), Pakistan (6), Democratic Republic of Congo (7), and Yemen (8). The United States ranks in 10th position.
Below are reasons why Nigeria ranked ninth in the poll:
Access to economic resources:
There is high discrimination against Nigerian women at every level as women and girls culturally have limited access to education, ownership of land and assets.
Nigerian women are denied equal treatment in inheritance rights, human resources development and sustainable economic growth.
Customary practices:
Top on the list of why Nigeria is rated ninth is due to prevalent customary practices, which include, but are not limited to early marriage, inheritance, female genital mutilation, widowhood practices etc.
Sexual violence:
Nigeria is rated as ninth in the world as regards to sexual violence on women including rape as a weapon of war, domestic rape, rape by a stranger, the lack of access to justice in rape cases, sexual harassment and coercion into sex as a form of corruption.
Non-sexual violence:
Stories in the media both online and offline are full of non-sexual violence, and physical abuse such as slapping, kicking, pushing, shoving, punching, choking and strangling.
Human trafficking:
The trafficking of Nigerian women from Libya to Italy by boat according to international media has reached “crisis” levels, with traffickers using migrant reception centres as holding pens for women who are then collected and forced into prostitution across Europe, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) warns.
About 3,600 Nigerian women arrived by boat into Italy in the first six months of this year, almost double the number who were registered in the same time period last year, according to the IOM.
