For the past two weeks a large portion of my schedule has
been consumed with learning and recording facts and statistics on violence
against women.
It’s a freelance job I picked up this summer for an
organization in Maryland. Currently I’m researching human trafficking and it’s
effect on women as well as domestic violence against women, rape, and sexual
abuse of women.
These topics and how they effect women have always been
something I wanted to learn more about especially since I am a women—it’s
always good to know what kind of odds and statistics are stacked against you .
. . but only so you can crush them while rising above!
To be honest, I read a lot of it through the mindset that
these are nothing but facts on a piece of paper, otherwise, some of these stats
will really mess with a person.
Like this one that got the better of me and I posted it on
Facebook earlier today: “Globally, as many as 38% of all murders of women are
committed by intimate partners.”[1]
Makes me think twice about getting married one day. Forget growing old with a
person . . . I’d like to just grow old period!
In one of the studies talking about female genital
mutilation (FGM), it said that the more educated a women is the less likely she
will be to experience FGM. It's also true that the more educated a girl's mother is the less likely the child will be to experience FGM. I’ve also heard that the more educated a women is
the less likely she is to get married. Coincidence?! Alright, well that settles
it for me . . . I’ve now decided to pursue a PhD! Maybe even a postdoc!
But in all seriousness, the stats for all these topics are
real and probably under the actual occurrence rate for many of these atrocities
simply because these kinds of crimes are not always reported. And because of
this, they deserve a second glance. One that once you’ve allowed yourself the
numbness to read them, you allow yourself the heart to feel them—for the sake
of the women who weren’t allowed the comfort of learning these truths first
through ink on blended tree pulp. And once you have felt them, allow yourself
to act—to do something so that one less woman out there well have to feel the internal physical and psychological pain these statistics represent.
If you'd like to know more about what you can do tangibly or to make a donation to an organization working to end these crimes, the Polaris Project is a great place to start. The Polaris Project deals specifically with human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery.
[1] Global and regional estimates of violence against
women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and
non-partner sexual violence (World Health Organization 2013)
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