The World's Most Dangerous Countries for Women

The Most Dangerous Countries in the World for Women

These five countries are the world's most dangerous countries for women according to a Thomas Reuters Foundation expert poll released on Wednesday, due to a barrage of threats ranging from violence and rape to dismal healthcare and "honor killings." In the global perceptions survey by TrustLaw (www.trust.org/trustlaw), the Foundation's legal news service, they asked 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks: health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.

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Photo:REUTERS/Omar Sobhani Shamsia, 17, victim of an acid attack by the Taliban, lies on a bed at a hospital in Kabul November 15, 2008.

#1 Afganistan

Beleaguered by insurgency, corruption and dire poverty, Afghanistan ranked as most dangerous to women overall and came out worst in three of the poll's key risk categories: health, non-sexual violence and economic discrimination.

* Women in Afghanistan have a one in 11 chance of dying in childbirth.

* Some 87 pct of women are illiterate.

* 70-80 pct of girls and women face forced marriages.

Photo:REUTERS/STR New Women flee after fresh fighting erupted around Kibati village November 7, 2008.

#2 Congo

Still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4 million, Democratic Republic of Congo ranked second due mainly to staggering levels of sexual violence.

* About 1,150 women are raped every day, or some 420,000 a year, according to a recent report in the American Journal of Public Health.

* The Congolese Women's Campaign Against Sexual Violence puts the number of rapes at 40 women a day.

* 57 pct of pregnant women are anemic.

Photo:REUTERS The daughters of Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi pose with an image of their mother while standing outside their residence in Sheikhupura located in Pakistan's Punjab Province November 13, 2010. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

#3 Pakistan

Those polled cited cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women, including acid attacks, child and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other physical abuse.

* More than 1,000 women and girls are victims of "honour killings" every year, according to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.

* 90 pct of women in Pakistan face domestic violence.

* 44.5 pct of girls are married before the age of 18.

Photo:REUTERS/Amit Dave A woman carries empty pitchers as another fills a pitcher with drinking water from a "virda", a small opening made by villagers manually to collect water, from the dried-up Banas river at Sukhpur village, north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad May 12, 2011. At least 30 virdas have been dug up by villagers in the river. Villagers walk two and a half kilometers to draw drinking water from them, and they say it takes 30-40 minutes to fill a five-liter jar.

#4 India

Female foeticide, child marriage and high levels of trafficking and domestic servitude make the world's largest democracy the fourth most dangerous place for women, the poll showed.

* 100 million people, mostly women and girls, are involved in trafficking in one way or another, according to former Indian Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta.

* Up to 50 million girls are "missing" over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide.

* 44.5 pct of girls are married before the age of 18.

Photo:REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Somali refugees who recently arrived at the Dagahaley camp assemble a makeshift shelter, in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border, April 3, 2011. Drought and two decades of violence have forced Somalis to flee their country and seek refuge at the three Dadaab camps, which were originally designed to accommodate 90,000 people. Dadaab is the biggest refugee camp in the world, with more than 332,000 refugees mainly from Somalia.

#5 Somalia

One of the poorest, most violent and lawless countries, Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalog of dangers including high maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage.

* 95 pct of women face FGM, mostly between the ages of 4 and 11.

* Only 9 pct of women give birth at a health facility.

* Only 7.5 pct of parliament seats are held by women.