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According to The Star’s Foreign Affairs Reporter, Olivia Ward, here are 10 of the worst countries in the world to be a woman today:

• Afghanistan
The average Afghan girl will live to only 45, More than half of all brides are under 16, one woman dies in childbirth every half hour, 87 per cent of women admit to experiencing domestic violence, more than one million widows are on the streets Afghanistan is the only country in which the female suicide rate is higher than that of males.

• Democratic Republic of Congo
Rapes are so brutal and systematic that UN investigators have called them unprecedented, many victims die; others are infected with HIV and left to look after children alone. Foraging for food and water exposes women to yet more violence. Without money, transport or connections, they have no way of escape.

• Iraq
Women are imprisoned due to an inferno of sectarian violence that targets women and girls, The literacy rate, once the highest in the Arab world, is now among the lowest in females as families fear risking kidnapping and rape by sending girls to school, more than 1 million women have been displaced from their homes.

• Nepal
One in 24 women die in pregnancy or childbirth, Daughters who aren’t married off may be sold to traffickers before they reach their teens.

• Sudan
Abduction, rape or forced displacement have destroyed more than 1 million women’s lives since 2003, access to justice is almost impossible for the female victims of violence.

•Guatemala
Women from poor backgrounds face domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.

•Mali
One of the world’s poorest countries, few women escape the torture of genital mutilation, many are forced into early marriages, and one in 10 dies in pregnancy or childbirth.

•Pakistan
Women are gang-raped as punishment for men’s crimes and honour killing is more widespread.

•Saudi Arabia
Women are treated as lifelong dependants, under the guardianship of a male relative. Deprived of the right to drive a car or mix with men publicly, they are confined to strictly segregated lives on pain of severe punishment.

• The Somali capital, Mogadishu
a vicious civil war has put women, who were the traditional mainstay of the family, under attack. In a society that has broken down, women are exposed daily to rape, dangerously poor health care for pregnancy, and attack by armed gangs.

On the other hand, the best countries to be a woman are:

Measures of well-being include life expectancy, education, purchasing power and standard of living. Not surprisingly, the top 10 countries are among the world’s wealthiest.

1. Iceland
2. Norway
3. Australia
4. Canada
5. Ireland
6. Sweden
7. Switzerland
8. Japan
9. Netherlands
10. France

I see they didn’t mention good old Great Britain LOL!!!

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