Womdering where to visit next?
Source: Getty Images
IT’S a sad fact that in the 21st century, women around the globe
continue to encounter rampant discrimination, harassment and inequality.
Upsetting — though not necessarily surprising.
Here are five places where women’s rights are being exploited and
sexism reaches into the highest echelons of government — reason enough
to take your travel dollars elsewhere, the
New York Post reports.
Turkey
“You
cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against nature
because their nature is different.” So said Turkey’s president Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, speaking last week in Istanbul at — of all places — a
women’s conference. In the speech, delivered on Nov. 24 to the Turkish
Women and Democracy Association, Erdogan indicated that a woman is
incapable of doing every job that a man can do because “it is against
her delicate nature” — specifically citing pregnant women and nursing
mothers.
“You can’t tell this to feminists, because they do not accept
motherhood. They have no such concerns,” said the conservative leader,
who’s advocated for women having at least three children. We wonder what
Beyoncé would have to say about that.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Source: AFP
Indonesia
As if being a policewoman
weren’t tough enough, in Indonesia, a report says the government forces
female recruits to undergo “virginity tests,” which involves a doctor
examining applicants to see if their hymens are intact. The reason?
Policewomen in Indonesia are required to be virgins, to ensure that they
are morally fit for duty.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the
report on November 18; it’s based on interviews the organisation
conducted in six cities across Indonesia, from May to October 2014. The
jobs website of the country’s official National Police states, according
to HRW: “In addition to the medical and physical tests, women who want
to be policewomen must also undergo virginity tests. So all women who
want to become policewomen should keep their virginity.”
Other
requirements to be on the force: Women must be between 17-and-a-half and
22 years of age, unmarried and at least 165 centimetres tall.
New Indonesian police women recruits stand in formation.
Source: AFP
El Salvador
Nicaragua or Belize are home to
luxury resorts and upscale yoga retreats. Neighbouring El Salvador,
while perhaps not tops on one’s list for a girls’ getaway, has certainly
benefited from the emerging interest in Central American tourism.
But
the country also has some of the world’s strictest anti-abortion laws —
abortion is illegal for any reason, including rape, incest or when the
mother’s life is in danger. A side effect is that women who suffer
miscarriages or stillbirths have been accused of trying to end their
pregnancies — and have been sentenced to prison for aggravated homicide,
a charge that carries up to 30 years.
A 2012 report from the
Central American Women’s Network listed 628 El Salvadoran women
currently imprisoned for having abortions, and noted that “women ... are
regularly reported to the police following a miscarriage, stillbirth or
premature labour.”
Women’s rights have a way to go in El Salvador. Picture: Dennis Tang
Source: Flickr
Saudi Arabia
So maybe you aren’t jetting off to
Riyadh anytime soon. A good thing, since women in the conservative
Muslim nation have few, if any rights. Last week, numerous restaurants
posted signs banning single women from entering.
Why?
Because they
smoke, “flirt” and speak on their mobile phones — behaviour that one
restaurant owner called “mentally unstable.”
It’s just one of a long list of things women are
prohibited from doing by law in Saudi Arabia. Those include: voting,
driving, and visiting a doctor without a male chaperon.
A Saudi woman drives a vehicle in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Source: AP
Utah
Women aren’t so equal in Utah.
Source: Flickr
Really, the US is on this list? Yep, because the US is ranked
20th overall, behind Burundi and Nicaragua, on the World Economic
Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index. And of the 50 states, Utah is one of
the worst when it comes to gender inequality, according to
wallethub.com and
247wallst.com.
Basing
its tabulation on three major categories — economy, leadership and
health — 247wallst.com came to the conclusion that “Utah is the worst
state for women.”
Here are just a few reasons: A typical man in
Utah earned more than $US50,000 ($59,000) in 2013, while most women made
70 per cent of that figure — one of the largest gender-pay gaps in the
nation.
Less than 31 per cent of management positions were held by
women in Utah (the second lowest rate in the US). Only six women occupy
the 75 seats in the state’s House of Representatives, and Utah has just
five female state senators — a huge underrepresentation of women in
government.
For its rankings, wallethub.com took 10 key metrics
into account and declared Utah 49th in gender-based disparity. Among its
findings: Utah had the biggest educational attainment gap and was
second to last in workplace equality. So maybe you should think twice
before booking that ski weekend in Park City?
news.com.au 3 Dec 2014
