UN Report: Family Remains the Most Dangerous Place for Domestic Violence Against Women
In a detailed report titled “Progress of the World’s Women,” the United Nations describes the family as a place of love and affection, where people turn to receive support and nurturing. However, the same report warns that the family is also a place where women in different parts of the world face violence and discrimination.
Fumnzil Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, said on Tuesday, June 25, while presenting the report “Families in a Changing World,” a study on the condition of women worldwide in 2019 and 2020: “The family is a place of violence and discrimination against women and girls, and in fact, it is where violence against women and girls begins.”
She said: “Cases of violence against women by family members are so prevalent that the family can be considered the most dangerous place for women and girls.
According to statistics presented in this report, in 2017 alone, 137 women died daily in different parts of the world as a result of domestic violence.
In one out of every five countries in the world, or 20 percent of countries, women and girls do not have equal inheritance rights as male children, and the laws of at least 19 countries in the world require women to obey their husbands. In developing countries, one-third of women told UN reporters that they lack the right to make decisions about their own health.
At yesterday’s UN Women session, “Marwa Sharif Al-Din,” head of the International Movement for Equality and Justice in Muslim Families, told reporters that in many countries of the world, family laws still have religious foundations, and for this reason, it is said that laws cannot be reformed because God’s law cannot be changed. Ms. Sharif Al-Din said that if anyone seeks to change these laws, they face the risk of attack and even death threats.
The UN Women’s report, using data and analysis, demonstrates the diversity of the family institution in different parts of the world and contains legal recommendations that would enable today’s families to better meet the needs of their members, especially women and girls.
Source: Voice of America
