One in three women around the world experience violence in their lifetime, often in the hands of someone they know, love and trust.
From 25 November, (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), to 10 December (Human Rights Day), the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence will be running. A time to focus on and end violence against women and girls around the world. A prominent colour in this campaign is orange. The slogan “orange the world” has been adopted to raise public awareness about such an important issue.
Female Genital Mutilation is a worldwide problem that has affected more than 200 million girls and women alive today. It is a procedure that intentionally alters or causes injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons and can be very dangerous aswell as extremely painful. FGM has become a social norm and is motivated by the fear of being rejected by the community if it isn’t performed. It is done between infancy and age 15 and it reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes. England alone had 5,700 recorded cases in 2015-16, despite it being illegal. The 16 Days of Activism aims to abolish practises like FGM which is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
However, resources to prevent violence against women and girls are severely lacking. To donate to UN women and the 16 Days campaign, go to https://donate.unwomen.org/16days/.
“The price of no change in unacceptable.”- UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcukaw
Manaal Rehman, Waldegrave School
