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Jane Vanderburgh
4 November 2015
ENG 211
Professor Eason
Women’s Rights are Human Rights, Too
It is no secret that there are many countries in our world today that look down on
women with disdain or regret. In these countries, girls are not given the same rights as
their male counterparts are. Many have never been to school, are illiterate, and forced
into child marriage at a young age. It is estimated that over 62 million school-aged girls
worldwide are not in school (“We Must Close the Gender Gap”). While some might
argue that the Western world should mind their own affairs and allow other countries to
treat women however they choose, I don’t believe this is a valid response. With the
correct involvement and appropriate mindset, the Western world has the right and power
to effectively empower women on a global scale and help them achieve the same rights
their male counterparts have.
On September 5, 1995, First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton addressed the United
Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in China. The gathering was held to
recognize the need for women to have the same rights men do. In her speech, Clinton
says that while women make up over half of the world’s population, they make up over
seventy percent of the world’s poor. Two thirds of women, globally speaking, are unable
to read or write because of being denied schooling by their “own fathers and brothers”
(Clinton 3). She instigates a call to action, so to speak, to those listening to her speech by
saying “it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human

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rights” (5). She concludes by emphasizing that women’s rights are the same as basic
human rights, and basic human rights are the same as women’s rights (6). The following
paragraphs help to further detail and explain just how women and girls are being
mistreated on a global scale.
While first instincts might be to turn to the government or lawmakers in times of
need, it is unfortunate to see the government is often the force behind the misogynist
rights. In 1991, Sudan passed a law called the “Muslim Personal Law Act” in which they
stated that a husband’s rights “include being taken care of and amicably obeyed by his
wife” (Curry 9). The following year, Yemen instigated a similar law, but went into much
further detail than Sudan did. Calling theirs the “Personal Status Act”, Yemen said that
women must allow their husbands to have “licit intercourse with them” and must not
“leave the conjugal home without permission” (9).
In Afghanistan, many women have taken to harming themselves in various forms
or fashion, to escape misogynistic punishment. A twenty-year-old woman is reported as
attempting to kill herself by setting herself on fire because of how abusive her husband
and her in-laws were. They broke her arm and beat her repeatedly, for seemingly no
reason. She said she saw no other choice but killing herself (Curry 71). Despite the end of
the Taliban reign and attempts of democracy emerging in Afghanistan, many social
workers and doctors report there is little to no change in average family life and male to
female relationships. In a westernized city of nearly half a million people, there were
forty cases within six months of young women, caught in abusive marriages at a far too
young age, attempting to kill themselves as a means to escape their husbands and families
(71). Hospitals in eastern Afghanistan report at least two or three cases a month of burn

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victims that admit to self-injury. They often resort to burning themselves since they are in
the kitchen often and kerosene and cooking fuels are found in abundance (72). One
woman, later dying as a result from her injuries, reported that her husband and in-laws
were so abusive that when she threatened to burn herself, they actually encouraged her to
do so (73).
Perhaps one of the most significant issues in female struggles today is the strong
prevalence of child marriages still. Daughters are often exchanged to families as
compensation, whether instead of wages or to recompense for a crime, and are often
“married to men two or three times their age” (72). In this new household, they are often
seen as just another set of hands or feet for labor. Often, as soon as they are married into
the family, they are expected to begin childbearing. Usually unhealthy for both the young
mother and the baby, teenage girls get very sick during their pregnancy and/or die during
childbirth. Many teenage girls die during childbirth due to “obstructed birth” (Stromquist
145). In many teenage pregnancies, the girl is too young to have a fully developed pelvic
bone; thus, it is not large enough to effectively handle childbirth.
Other than being simply married at a young age, many young girls face threats of
being sold into prostitution or human trafficking circles. Based on a study done by
UNICEF in the 1990s, it was estimated that in the country of Bombay, now the city of
Mumbai in India, there were over 800,000 prostitutes under the age of sixteen (470).
Even more westernized and developed countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary,
Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Japan, Israel, Italy, Canada, the
United States, and former Soviet Union countries face the threat of child pornography
and prostitution as well (471).

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Women are severely mistreated when it comes to suspicion of sexual
involvement, especially in Middle Eastern countries. It is reported that at least two
thousand women die in the country of Pakistan each year, due to accusations of
extramarital or premarital sex. It is reported “if a woman or girl is even seen in the
company of a stranger, it is assumed that the two were planning to have—or have had—
sex, and she is killed” (Curry 75)1. As ridiculous as it may sound, a man in Pakistan is
reported to have killed his wife because he had a dream in which she had an extramarital
relationship with another male. Many of these killings, normally those committed by a
husband, father, brother, or other blood relative, are known as “honor killings”, because
they are done in hopes of preserving the family’s honor, despite what the girl has, or has
not, done (76).
Pakistani law nearly equates a rape victim as someone who practiced consensual
adultery (76). A reporter in a Pakistani newspaper is quoted as saying, “A woman raped
shames the community and dishonors the man” and the same article later reports of a
woman who was gang raped by three men and was killed by her family seven hours later
for “bring dishonor to the family by going to the police” (78). Perhaps the most shameful
report of an honor killing is that of a man accused of killing his eighty-five-year-old
mother on accusations of sexual activity with a man. Not only was he not charged for the
crime, he was awarded the equivalent of $500 from the man accused of sexual relations
with his mother (79).
1 Unsurprisingly, it is not reported that the male stranger seen with the woman or girl is
killed immediately as well.

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Another alarming example of women having little control of their bodies or the
choices that come with their bodies is the practice of female circumcision. Predominantly
found in African countries and indigenous tribes, it is estimated as many as 85 million to
114 million girls have undergone this “circumcising” practice, otherwise called genital
mutilation (Stromquist 196). There are over two million new female circumcision
operations a year in Africa alone (145). Though the practice, and the extent of the
operation, depends on the social expectations of the region, they all pose immediate risks
of infections and illnesses, and many life-long physical and emotional scars (145). In the
societies where this practice is acceptable, women have no control over their bodies, and
must report to their father, or husband if married, to make such decisions for them.
Pakistan is not the only country with misconstrued views of rape victims and
rapist themselves. Countries such as Ethiopia, Lebanon, Guatemala, and Uruguay all
exempt men from punishment of rape crimes, so long as they marry their victims after the
assault (Curry 11). In Mexico, a study was done by the attorney general’s office that only
one of every ten sexual crimes is reported, and ninety percent of the victims of these
crimes are between the ages of thirteen and seventeen (Stromquist 199).
When speaking of rape as a war crime, which has roots back to ancient Rome and
Greece, it is still a common practice today. A Vietnamese proverb says that women are
the “grass that gets trampled when the elephants fight” (Curry 61). An organization called
Amnesty International, along with other groups, has declared sexual violence is in fact a
war crime, but it does little to change the fact that it still happens. As recent as 2001,
military troops in Burma were using their authority as a means to violate the local and
indigenous women in the region they were occupying, and even the United States

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accepted this as a credible story (64). Unfortunately, there is little the United States, or
any other government, can do in situations like these.
Regrettably, the lack of gender equality from a governmental standpoint is not a
Middle Eastern or third world problem, or even a cultural pressure that has no specific
law. Some westernized countries, including the United States, have laws that are gender
discriminatory. When dealing with United States citizenship, the law states that children
born abroad, or out of wedlock have different citizenship rights than others, but it makes
a difference on whether the mother or the father is the United States citizen. The Supreme
Court upheld this gender discriminatory law in 2001 (10).
Though these examples all seem extreme and unlikely to happen—perhaps even
from a naïve, Western perspective—there are obvious problems that religious groups,
specifically Islam, implement on their followers. For instance, take the story of a Muslim
medical doctor who, after obtaining her medical degree in New York City, took a job in
Saudi Arabia. As she describes in her autobiography,
I wondered when I would next be at the wheel of a car. I knew already that
it is illegal for a woman to drive in Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh, I would be licensed
to operate procedures on critically ill patients, yet never to drive a motor vehicle.
Only men could enjoy the privilege. (Ahmed 9)
The previously mentioned United Nations Fourth Conference on Women, held in
China in 1995, announced there would be a global-wide effort to eradicate gender
discriminatory laws, or any regulations that were partial to one sex over the other, but it
will be a long time until many of these countries, especially those with strict religious
guidelines, will uphold to this effort.

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As saddening as all of these examples and statistics might sound, there is hope
that gender inequality might slowly be coming an obsolete factor. In the twenty first
century, society seems to be on the brink of explorative and new fields of reform and
change that previous generations had not even dreamed to be possible. Though one
cannot expect a complete turnaround in some areas, due to social and cultural
expectations and traditions, not to mention religious pressure, there are many aspects that
lead us to believe women’s rights are gradually becoming more recognized.
In 1991, a campaign was launched, and then adopted in 1993 by the Second
World Conference on Human Rights, that stated “we demand that gender violence, a
universal phenomenon which takes many forms across culture, race, and class, be
recognized as a violation of human rights requiring immediate action” (Stromquist 49).
Not only was this monumental in paving the way to gender equality across the world,
women also gained the right to fight back on a legal level against gender crimes, since the
United Nations now recognized gender violence as a crime against human rights. During
this same time frame, in the early nineties, women were beginning to form organizations
that empowered and encouraged both local and foreign women alike and taught them
they were not alone in the struggle for women’s rights. This was the first time such a
wave of organizations had been formed (54).
As recent as September 2015, the UN Women, an organizational branch of the
United Nations devoted to ending gender inequality and achieving female rights across
the club, met to discuss what to do next. Eighty leaders from countries around the world
met at the United Nations commune in New York City, anxious to “close the gender
gap.” These eighty leaders have addressed and committed to ending female

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discrimination by the year 2030, and have hopes to enact change in their home countries.
China, for example, has pledged to help their women and “support them in realizing their
own dreams and aspirations in both career and life” (“We Must Close the Gender Gap”).
The UN Secretary General is quoted as saying “[these leaders] have the power and the
responsibility to ensure that gender equality is—and remains—a national priority” (“We
Must Close the Gender Gap”).
While these pledges and commitments sound like wonderful groundwork, they
are just that—the beginnings of a movement. In countries where religion dictates daily
life, such as Saudi Arabia, it is unlikely that gender inequality will be much different in
the year 2030 than it is now. In countries and among indigenous tribes that have practiced
female mistreatment, such as circumcision, for generations now, it is hard to imagine they
will cease these practices within the next fifteen years.
The Western world, although by no means perfect in the sense of gender equality,
can do a great bit to help the women in these countries previously mentioned in which
they are considered unequal. First, by encouraging non-profit organizations and sending
people to educate women on how to defend themselves from rape as war crimes, standing
taller for themselves and their daughters, and how to effectively take care of children
from birth to adulthood. Yet another way the Westernized world can get involved is by
simply spreading the message of oppressed women. The more who know and understand
the plight of gender inequality and those facing a “gender gap”, the less likely it is to
naturally occur. By encouraging gender equality through non-profits, vocal and monetary
support, and spreading the word of oppressed women, the Western world can affect
women in these less fortunate countries in more than one generation.

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Though it is a plausible goal, it is also a lofty one, in which the Western world is
asking the Eastern world to change how they view one half of their society and change
their opinions on them. The day might come when gender equality is fully obtained in
every country, but it will take longer than the year 2030 to do so.
All of that being said, however, there is some good that the Western world can
and is contributing to now. By instigating world conferences on gender equality,
launching organizations such as UN Women, and employing ambassadors in both
domestic and foreign lands to trace female mistreatment, we are closing the “gender gap”
and bringing women closer to the bar which is set for men. By organizing support groups
and non-profit associations that work specifically to empower women and seek to make a
difference in their lives, the Western world is striving to make a difference in every
aspect of gender inequality. Though the United States certainly is not close to bringing in
the “gender gap”—we rank number eighteen in the world, surprisingly2—we are hoping
to make a difference among these women and show them their opinion and the quality of
life is important, and crucial, to global issues as well.
As previously mentioned, it will be a long time coming in many countries. Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, and other countries in which brutal crimes against women were outlined
previously, all face a strict religion with specific guidelines to male-female relationships
and what is required of a woman in these cultures. However, this should not cause us to
lose heart and lose sight of the main focus at hand—to close the gender gap, we must be
actively more involved in global issues and be intentional of elevating women’s rights to
2 The Scandinavian region, consisting of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, to
name a few, rank among the countries that have the lowest gender gap and thus
highest Nagender equality in the world.

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be more recognizable on a universal level. Only once this is achieved can we fully expect
society to operate in harmony and function as God, or whatever Creator these strict
religions adhere to, would have intended it to be.
Works Cited
Ahmed, Qanta. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi
Kingdom. Naperville: Sourcebooks. 2008.
Clinton, Hilary Rodham. Remarks by Hilary Rodham Clinton at the United Nations
Fourth World Conference on Women. 1995.
Curry, Jennifer, ed. The Reference Shelf: Women’s Rights. H.W. Wilson. 2005.
Stromquist, Nelly, ed. Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary
Issues. Garland Reference Library of Social Science. 1998.
"Press Release: World Leaders Agree: We Must Close the Gender Gap." UN Women. 27
Sept. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.