Nigeria has been ranked as the 9th most dangerous country for women according to a new poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The foundation contacted 548 experts focused on women’s issues to conduct a global perception poll to highlight the most dangerous countries for women and ranked India as the worst in 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.
The poll addresses the overall risks faced by women specifically regarding healthcare, access to economic resources, customary practices, sexual violence, non-sexual violence and human trafficking.
Nigeria is ranked ninth with human rights groups accusing the country’s military of torture, rape and killing civilians during its nine-year fight against Islamist insurgency by terrorist group, Boko Haram. The terrorist group is responsible for the death of over 30,000 people and the displacement of millions, resulting in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
How Nigeria was ranked
According to the poll, Nigeria ranks as the 4th most dangerous country for women when it comes to human trafficking which includes domestic servitude, forced labour, bonded labour, forced marriage and sexual slavery. The poll also notes that tens of thousands of Nigerian women are trafficked into Europe for sexual exploitation.
The country also ranks 6th worst for women regarding customary practice (culture and religion) including acid attacks, female genital mutilation, child marriage, forced marriage, punishment/retribution through stoning or physical abuse or mutilation and female infanticide/foeticide.
The country is also ranked in 10th position in 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.
The country is not ranked among the top 10 countries that discriminate against women in regards to job discrimination, inability to make a livelihood, discriminatory land, property or inheritance rights, lack of access to education and lack of access to adequate nutrition; and is also not in the top 10 list of countries that inflict non-sexual violence on women including conflict-related violence and forms of domestic physical and mental abuse.
Surprisingly, Nigeria also does not rank among the top 10 most dangerous countries for women regarding healthcare in terms of maternal mortality, lack of access to healthcare, lack of control over reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.
Credit: Pulse.ng