Amid growing food insecurity, women tend to become more vulnerable to malnutrition and anemia
“Conflicts and instability exacerbate pre-existing patterns of gender discrimination,” rued the UN’s human rights agency (OHCHR). The UN Secretary-General’s latest report on conflict-related sexual violence, alerted the world about continuing use of “sexual violence as a tactic of war.”
Several research studies have pointed out that “the overall prevalence rates of sexual violence in conflict zones are three times more than in non-conflict settings”. As the war prolongs in Ukraine, U.N. Women and CARE International expressed concern about its adverse impact on women and girls with increasing care burden, worsening gender inequalities and gender-based violence (GBV). While a Ukrainian lawyer activist observed that “the true scale of GBV is not yet known, but it will definitely have long-lasting consequences”, and a researcher assessing gendered costs of the war commented that “it will add further miseries to Ukrainian women, who are already bearing the brunt of the eight years of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine”.
Incidents of such atrocities generally are slow to come to light as survivors generally desist from reporting because of trauma, fear and insecurity, and lack of specific attention to such cases of victimisation. The office of the OHCHR, till January this year, only documented around 90 such cases since February last year.
As Ukraine witnesses a huge exodus and internal displacements (IDPs), the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), noted that more than half of them have been women and girls, who, while fleeing for safety, security and shelter, confronted the dangers of trafficking, and forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage or coerced sex. Moreover, the crumbling health infrastructure, has also made a heavy toll on pregnant women with pre-natal complications, premature or stillbirths, while, the stress of the war, caused severe mental health outcomes.Amid growing food insecurity, women tend to become more vulnerable to malnutrition and anemia. In a bid to make up for the lost household income, they are also joining the hitherto prohibited hazardous occupations like de-mining, long-haul trucking, welding, firefighting, etc. In war-ravaged Afghanistan, an Amnesty International’s impact study of the Taliban’s one year rule revealed that “Afghan women and girls encounter discrimination in every aspect of lives, from reproductive rights to personal freedom, and governance to labour market access.”
To many Afghan women, it is a death in slow motion. A joint research by Human Rights Watch and San Jose State University (SJSU) remarked that “Taliban’s right-violating policies destroyed women’s livelihoods and identity, who now, live a life of fear, harassment and intimidation”. The country recorded the highest rate of IPV, 35 out of every 100 women. Women’s financial inclusion is barely 7.2 per cent. Taliban’s latest missive was stopping the female aid workers from working with the foreign aid agencies and NGOs, for not “adhering to Islamic dress code”. In insurgency dominated Somalia, the UNSRSG-SVC’s 2019 report highlighted “the heightened rates of sexual violence, especially in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab insurgents".
Families live in fear of abduction and forced marriages by Al-Shabaab insurgents. In every 100,000 live births, 829 Somalian women die, one of the highest maternal mortality rates (MMR) in the world, and only two per cent of them have access to modern reproductive and sexual health care. Globally, Somalia ranks fourth lowest for gender equality (GII).
While the situation in war-ravaged Syria has been described by the UN human rights chief as “the worst man-made disaster ever since World War II”, rendering about 11.7 million people, mostly pregnant women and adolescent girls, either into IDPs or refugees. In 2022, the UNFPA urged upon defending the “rights to give birth safely and live life free from violence”, when nearly 7.3 million women and girls were in desperate need of life-saving sexual and reproductive health services, and many died in the course of pregnancy. Looking at ethnically and politically unstable South Sudan, one in three women and girls underwent violence (VAWG) during their lifetime, both, by conflict and non-conflict actors. It has the highest MMR in the world. The MPS, 2021, index, ranked it 165th out of 170 countries.
As a mitigation strategy, often a narrative of “protection” by controlling behaviours of women and girls is adopted, which eventually leads to further gender divide. Isn’t it high time now that the world pays heed to the Security Council’s 2019 resolution which called for an effective role of woman and girl survivors in decision-making in justice, peace-building and reconstruction processes, and using it as an opportunity in transforming the gender-imbalanced societal structures?
(The author of a former Director General of Doordarshan and All India radio)