by M.C. Escher

When we talk about human rights violations, chances are high that we are talking about women. We can list the following types of violence or force used against women (I’ve linked to previous posts dealing with the individual types of violence or force):

• Wife beating (domestic violence)

• Rape (marital rape or “normal” rape)
• Acid attacks
• Stoning
• Honor killings
• Selective abortion (an estimated 60 million girls are “missing” due to sex-selective abortions, infanticide, and, increasingly, sex selection before conception)
• Human trafficking and sex slavery (see also here)
• Female genital mutilation or FGM (see also here)
• Forced marriages
• Child marriages
• Forced pregnancies
• Dowry-related violence

And we can add the following types of non-violent forms of gender discrimination:

• Inequality in education
• Inequality in healthcare (see also here)
• Discrimination at work

Why is this? Why do so many women suffer from the cradle to the grave? What are the causes? Gender discrimination obviously results from a complex set of interacting causes. Women’s rights are violated because of some religious texts or religious teachings, because of certain cultural and traditional practices, and because of differences in education (women and girls are often less educated than men and boys, because they are forced to marry early in life, take care of the household and the children etc.). In many cases, all of this is then made worse by legislation aimed against women.

We can also point to popular culture and advertising, which all too often create and instill an image of women and girls that is inferior, objectified, and dehumanized. It’s likely that this creates feelings of inferiority in girls and machismo in boys.

(source)