Gender Inequality in Africa
For the final Blog Challenge, I decided to write about Gender Inequality in Africa, but zeroing in on how women are effected. This subject of gender issues has always been an interesting one for me, and since I enjoyed learning about Africa and it's culture, I thought it would be a swell idea to write about a topic that truly interests me. However, this is a deeply troubling subject, to see how our fellow humans are being treated simply due to the fact that the own a different reproductive system than men. Women are being humiliated, abused, and viewed as "second class citizens". Personally, I believe we should learn more about this subject; not only about women in Africa, but in women around the world. Women make up half of the world, so why doesn't half of history consist of stories of women?
Violence
In Africa, violence is very common towards women, from the school house to the bedroom. The Masai tribe in Tanzania are an example of the extreme violence shown towards women. In this primitive tribe, women often do much of the hard work, such as gathering the water, tending the children, and taking care of the livestock. However, even though they do all this, women still receive extreme violence, oftentimes for no obvious reason. It is considered "customary" for men to beat their wives, and no one does anything about it because no one knows any different. Also, women are not allowed to speak to their husbands unless given permission. These occurences do not only happen in primimtive countries, remmeber that. Not only are young women attacked, but widowers oftentimes do not receive any inheritance from dead husbands, and are passed on to the next male relative as "property". Many women are also coerced or forced into gender mutilation.
HIV/AIDS
In Africa, women and girls are dropping like flys due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Women are mainly seen as being "second rate citizens" of their country, so they are at a severely high risk for contracting this disease, due to rape or women not being taken seriously when they ask their partners to practice safe sex. Also, to circle back to rape, when couragoues women approach officials and attempt to make a statement about their rape, government officials simply laugh and send them off. People do not take it seriously, so rapists know that most of the time, they can get away with the act. Rape is also a common factor in war; soilders will take a young woman and force her to have sex with him. According to a 2010 study, for every 1 man, 4 women have HIV/AIDS in Africa. 60% of women in Africa have HIV/AIDS. 60%. It's insane and disgusting
Hope
As we all know, poverty and starvation are extremely prevalent in modern and much of historical Africa. Much of Africa's economical resources go toward this, and no one pays much attention to equality since people are starving. But, violence against half of the population is a huge problem. Not to sound crude or harsh, but people can make it without food, but cannot make it without hope. When women are constantly being put down, abused and harrassed in all manners or ways, they lose hope. Hope is what keeps us going day to day. You must focus on the people to create a country. You can have all the resources in the world, but if at least 60% of your population is effected by an incurable disease, or getting raped and forced into unwanted marriages then that is no country. "Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air... but only for one second without hope." -Hal Lindsey
Education
Not many girls in Africa are getting an education. Just trying to find the picture of some young girls in a classroom took longer than it should have; nearly all of the students in pictures were male. This is because most of the time, a girls menstrual cycle is seen as disgusting, and she often doesn't have the supplies to take care of herself. When you're missing a week of school every month, it's very hard to catch up. Also, women are expected to "simply", cook, clean, and deliver babies. Delivering babies is also done at a very young age; oftentimes girls get married around 14 or 15, and start popping out kids soon after marriage. That is the same age as myself many of my friends; I cannot imagine having to do all that these girls do at my age. I can't even take care of My Sims. I think that education is a very important part of building up a nation, because with education you can achieve all. These girls need education to realize how amazing they are, and how much more they can achieve and become. Education changes peoples lives.
Sources
http://www.rnanews.com/health/4206-why-african-women-are-more-vulnerable
http://www.dosomething.org/news/womans-life-small-town-africa
http://www.hrw.org/news/2003/12/01/africa-gender-inequality-fuels-aids-crisis
http://www.dosomething.org/news/womans-life-small-town-africa
http://www.hrw.org/news/2003/12/01/africa-gender-inequality-fuels-aids-crisis