TYPES OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

There are many ways women’s rights are being violated in the society by the male counterpart and custom/culture of the victims. And these ways:

(1)                COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

(2)                RAPE

(3)                FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: In some developing countries of the world, most girls are made to prostitute under the guise of sex tourism. Sex tourism according to UNICEF when rich men travel during holidays from advanced countries of the world to places like Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand etc. to have sexual dealings with children between ages of 13 and 15 years, CNN has recorded events of sex tourism in the past more especially in Asian countries where tourist travels and gets to hotels where teenagers renders them services like nude just to gratify their sexual urge. This is a violation of legal right of children and it is real violence against women. More than 50% of workers in the factories of Indian Brothels are children from report on CNN. In Nigeria, the business of sexual exploitation is an alarming issue more especially teenage girls are transacted with the parental approval into sex tourism in a bid to amass wealth. This business is rampart mostly in Nigeria and North Africa where young girls are taken to Italy for commercial sexual work. These are types of violence against women that do a lot of physical and psychological mental break down to women in the society. The victims are posed with series of dangerous health issues that has to do with STD Infection, Respiratory diseases, unwanted pregnancy, and drug addiction.

RAPE: Rape can be defined as forcing someone of opposite sex into sexual intercourse against her will; it is a type of violent, terrifying and humiliating assault to the victim. This act is prevalent in developed world like America where the drug addicts’ acts under influence coupled with excessive alcoholic consumption. It is a pervasive form of Gender based violence. Rape is considered a crime against a person and humanity at large. In some societies like India, when a girl is raped, it is considered a big shame to the family of the victim. And the family must fight to see that the rapist get married to the victim as the only way to restore her dignity. In Nigeria, certain bodies have been established to wage war against rape as a heinous crime in the society. These governmental and nongovernmental Organization backed up by Law are WACOL, HUMAN RIGHT COMMISSION, ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other related Offence), apart from Nigerian Police Force, you can bacon on these bodies for assistant when your right is deprived due to prevailing corruption in the Nigeria as a country. Any woman of all ages can become a victim of rape depending on your position and location at a particular time in the society, more especially in the higher institutions right in the female Hostels in campuses. This vice is act of power, anger and dominance over another because they are seen helpless. Some men uses this weapon to gain control over the victim, but that is a very wrong idea because the victim might at the end of the day discover that you are the wrong person. And that will be the end of your life. A rapist is liable to 21 years imprisonment according to Nigerian Constitution. Let us join hand to make our society better by curbing this heinous crime that will hinder Gender Equality.

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION:  it is the traditional practice that involves cutting or altering the female genital organ as a rite or culture of the people. Female Genital Cutting is practiced more in African countries. It is also practiced in Asian and Middle Eastern countries of the world. Some sees it as an act that helps to control woman sexual habits. According to the statistics of World Health Organization (WHO) more than 130 million girls worldwide have undergone female Genital cutting, also known as Genital Mutilation. Specifically, there are up to nine countries where this act are practiced as tradition and these countries are: Uganda, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, Senegal, Mali and some part of Nigeria. The practice is seen as an obstruction to a girl’s sexual enjoyment and it is different from partial or total removal of external genital organ to the narrowing vagina opening. It is common among traditional practitioners’ who have no medical training; medical untrained persons are responsible for the operation of genital mutilation or cutting in the traditional (custom) based. And this makes it more dangerous practices in the society and need to be curbed.

According to medical doctors, the risk of this practices is more deadly and dangerous in the sense that the victims are prone to viruses through unsterilized sharp object used in the cutting, the danger in this prevailing age is more than the previous years because of the transmission of HIV infection to the victims through sharp infected object like Razor, Knife, and Scissors who are ignorant of this fact. It is also causes lack of orgasm or sexual gratification and depression on women who are victims. As a result millions of women who have undergone this untrained surgery have serious health problem or consequences which include tetanus, shock, pains, infection, injury of adjacent tissue and organs, urinary retention etc. on the other hand, long term effect of this act may include abscesses and cysts, Urinary incontinence, Psychological and sexual problem, and difficulty in child bearing. Obstructed labor may occur if a woman is infibulated. All these can cause damages to a girl’s lifetime health. Having established the dangers of these Gender based violence. Let us join hand to curb them in our society to avoid had I known in our future generation.

ONYIA EMEKA HARFORD

(PUBLISHER/WRITER: +2348186388641)