Blog # 8: Ugandan women 'need access to medical care to help lower the number of fistula cases'

The Ugandan Ministry of Health found that two hundred thousand women are currently living with fistula.  Fistula is a disease in which a hole grows in between the bladder and the vagina.  This hole occurs because of complications from child birth.  It is widely known that women in Uganda generally deliver their children at the home.  This article is short in words, but monumental in ramifications.  We are currently studying population and health.  It is known that undeveloped countries and population growth are correlated.  It is also known that growing, undeveloped countries are correlated with a lack of adequate health care.  A lack of adequate health care contributes to poorer health in these countries.  In the case of the women in Uganda suffering from fistula, a lack of adequate health care and professional health services could potentially lead to complications after birth.  If these women were admitted to quality hospitals with quality care, these occurrences would be greatly diminished.  Dr. Olive Sentumbwe, director of Family Health and Population at World Health Organization in Kampala, said that women should be able to deliver with the assistance of a trained health worker because delivering a child is already a way in which someone can develop life-threatening complications.  As the population grows in undeveloped countries, we will continue to see these types of results until there is more of an effort to deliver quality health care to these countries.  Clinics must be built throughout these countries, because undeveloped countries are still sparsely populated and medical care must come to them in order to better the health of these populations.

http://www.figo.org/news/ugandan-women-need-access-medical-care-help-lower-number-fistula-cases-0011073

Blog # 7: Nigeria accounts for 10% of global maternal deaths – Expert

Nigeria is responsible for ten percent of the maternal deaths in the world.  This ranks them among the highest in the world.  They are second only to India with 145 maternal deaths every day during delivery or soon thereafter.  Even though Nigeria has taken actions to reduce this rate, there have not been any positive results from the efforts.  Oluwarotimi Akinola, the Charmin of Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, blamed the lack of improvement of these rates on the lack of access to health facilities, poverty, illiteracy, and women’s refusal to seek the help available at the health facilities when they are able to receive it.  People, as a result of high rates of illiteracy, are not informed about the health issues associated with child berthing. 

This article relates perfectly to what we are discussing this week in class.  We have examined the global population, its staggering increase in such a small amount of time, and the factors that have contributed to it.  Women are the nucleus of the issue of high rates of maternal deaths.  Women in developing countries are more prone to death during or shortly after delivery because they have so many.  These women have so many children because the healthcare is so poor or nonexistent where they are from that they already know that a couple of them will not live to see the age of five, and in order to keep the family going into the next generation more children must be made.  Women that are not educated are prone to having more children and thus increasing her chances of maternal death in developing countries because less educated women have nothing more to do than be a caretaker of the home.  Statistics show that when women are more educated they are inclined to have better healthcare which means that the child has better chances of surviving and resulting in the woman having less children.  This in turn reduces her chances of dying while delivering or shortly after.

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/national/126189-nigeria-accounts-for-10-of-global-maternal-deaths-expert.html

Government Committed to Women Emancipation: President

President Asif Ali Zardair has let it be knows that he and government are now endorsing women and their emancipation.  He is supporting their emancipation from discrimination.  Women in this region of the world have long tried to receive equal treatment of all facets in life.  Zardari acknowledged that the time had come for women of the world to be saluted for their resilience during times of gender inequality. Benazir Bhutto, the first Prime Minister elected in the Muslim world, felt that she was obligated to fight for the right of the women of her county.  Zardair believed that the rights of women were inseperable from their rights as human beings.  Zardair and his team devised a plan that would protect the women from harassment and empowering the women through government programs.  While in power, he created the Women in Distress and Detention Fund Act in  2001.  This provided government aid to women that needed assistance.  The National Commission on Status of Women was created to protect the legal rights of women.  He has even asked the government to revisit laws and policies that limit the social mobility of them and also the embarrassment that they feel as a result of old laws and customs. 

            This article touches on the reality that there are still parts of the world where women will not have the same economic opportunity as the men.  This article is more promising because this article stems from a Middle Eastern state.  The fact that a region where Islam  has dominated the ideologies of the people to revolutionize the way women are treated is a great thing.

http://www.brecorder.com/general-news/172/1160872/

Women suffer the most

International Women's Day is March 8 and even though crime shows no bias, women still seem to take the biggest blow.  Recent instances such as Olympian, Oscar Pistorius murdering his girlfriend but claiming that he believed her to be an intruder, despite multiple domestic violence calls from the residence or the recent gang rape in India that a previous blog earlier this month, are examples of how crime effects women no matter the location.  In India, women suffer immensely being subjects of crimes such as human trafficking.  More developed countries are also experiencing high rates of crime against women.  For example, in South Africa 64,000 women reported being raped last year.  An even more alarming statistic is that in South Africa the rate of murders of women there was five times the average rate of the rest of the world.  Iran and Canada had experienced civil relationships until recently.  An Iranian woman left Iran to become a Canadian citizen, but was arrested in Tehran for taking pictures on a student protest.  Zahra Kazemi, a photojournalist, passed away in Iranian custody and the reasons given as to the circumstances of her death were gray.  A medical examiner cited that Kazemi died as a result torture, gruesome rapes, and broken bones.  Canada is not an exception to crimes against women, though.  The Saudi Gazette reports that fifty even percent of women there have been victims of sexual abuse, but only six percent of them actually report to law enforcement.  In North America one in four women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.  These statistics show that even the elites of the world has a ways to go to confront this alarming issue. 

This article addresses what we are discussing in class.  Crime has shown that women are more prone to violent crimes.  These crimes involve sexual assault most of the time and this contributes to the fact that women know their assailants roughly 65% of the time.  This is also an example of a societal issue of how the world still views women as an inferior because some feel that sexual satisfaction is a right and that sexual assault is not an actual crime; this is also an example of what people perceive to be defined as a crime.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130301155004

Afghan Army Trains Women for Special Forces- Blog 4

The Afghan forces are now training female special forces for the purpose of night raids against insurgents.  These women's job is to round up women and children and get them out of harm's way while combating female suicide bombers or female insurgents in the disguise of a civilian Afghan woman.  These women's roles have become more important over the past 23 months and more women are being trained than ever.  This recruitment did not begin until 2011.  The advantages that these women have, such as saving the lives of innocent women and children, are continually being overshadowed by social issues with women in the armed forces.  The US began to take issue with this when front-line combat positions became open to the women and in Afghanistan because this is not their customary role.  The woman has to fight with her family and others who may not be in favor of this before she even begins her training.  Some even hide their occupation in fear of safety of their lives and their families' lives. 

This article is directly related to the topic of gender that we discussed this week in class.  Socially, we are bred from a very young age that males and females have roles that they play and that they cannot intersect.  The reality is that roles for males, and especially for females, should not be limited.  It becomes second nature to say that a man or woman cannot do certain things because it is weird, taboo even.  In this case, the societal nature of Afghanistan prohibits women from preforming any work outside of the home and that fighting is the role of the man.  Women are seen as nurturers, caretakers, and housekeepers.  Even the US was a victim of gender roles when they began to take issue with the workings of this operation when women began to become front-line leaders.  The gender role issue is a global problem and has to be addressed in the twenty first century as women become more independent minded.

http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/290849/Afghan-army-trains-women-for-special-forces-.html?isap=1&nav=5021

Blog 2

There was a seventeen year old girl that was raped by men in New Delhi, India.  Law enforcement claimed that the girl had willingly went with them and drank vodka, therefore relinquishing all rights to claim that she was raped.  A few weeks later, another woman, a bartender, was raped by six men.  Her friend, who was dumped beside her on the side of the road bleeding and naked, came out to talk about the lack of law enforcement aid.  He recounted how police did not want to lift her body out of fear of getting her blood all over them and were left in that mutilating position as they fought over how to handle the situation at hand.  He, with a broken leg, had to carry his dying friend to the police van.  Before she died, she made it known that has he not been there that she would not have filed a police report.  It is common for women to not report rapes in New Delhi, in fact only about one-third of rapes are reported there even though they are high in occurrences.  An investigation was performed where thirsty senior officers were asked about the issue of numerous rapes that occur yearly.  Their response gives a glimpse into the conundrum that women face there.  Seventeen out of the thirty expressed their opinions that the fault lies with the women in the way that behave and dressed.  They also indicated that the places that they socialize also invites the chances of rape.  This is a widely contagious ideology throughout India where women are still not seen as equals.  A twelve year old gave her account with law enforcement.  Her accusations were dismissed rudely, and she was thrown in jail for twelve days until she retracted her statement.

This article was a microcosm of  the overall view of women in India where long standing traditions have subjected women and girls to inhumane treatment.  Law enforcement, sworn to protect and serve the lives of their communities, are in fact contributing to the morally wrong treatment of these females.  People have spoken out about the lack of enforcement, but those cries are only temporary in nature.There was a seventeen year old girl that was raped by men in New Delhi, India. Law enforcement claimed that the girl had willingly went with them and drank vodka, therefore relinquishing all rights to claim that she was raped. A few weeks later, another woman, a bartender, was raped by six men. Her friend, who was dumped beside her on the side of the road bleeding and naked, came out to talk about the lack of law enforcement aid. He recounted how police did not want to lift her body out of fear of getting her blood all over them and were left in that mutilating position as they fought over how to handle the situation at hand. He, with a broken leg, had to carry his dying friend to the police van. Before she died, she made it known that has he not been there that she would not have filed a police report. It is common for women to not report rapes in New Delhi, in fact only about one-third of rapes are reported there even though they are high in occurrences. An investigation was performed where thirsty senior officers were asked about the issue of numerous rapes that occur yearly. Their response gives a glimpse into the conundrum that women face there. Seventeen out of the thirty expressed their opinions that the fault lies with the women in the way that behave and dressed. They also indicated that the places that they socialize also invites the chances of rape. This is a widely contagious ideology throughout India where women are still not seen as equals. A twelve year old gave her account with law enforcement. Her accusations were dismissed rudely, and she was thrown in jail for twelve days until she retracted her statement.

Women

The topic that I will cover this semester will involve women and their never-ending quest for equality throughout the world.  The issue of women is important to me because as the world evolves there has to be an emphasis on the importance of the overall condition's of women.  It has been proven in most cases that when women that are included in the workforce that country experiences a better overall economy.  It has also been proven that when women are included in government that that country is more developed.  Women and their rights are quite possibly one of the most important factors going into the next decade.  In our developed world women have the opportunity to achieve whatever their heart desires.  The developed world has women in many powerful positions, from CEO's of Fortune 500 companies to Secretary of State.  I believe that our environment sometimes creates a feeling of ignorance because the country that we live in believes in equality of all people.  The average American citizen probably does not know the severity of how bad women are treated in most areas of the world.  This world involves girls, barely teenagers, becoming married to men, human trafficking, and prostitution.  Education for women in some areas of the world is nonexistent   Some women are thought of nothing more than property and an avenue for children to come into the world. Of all the topics, women are included in the majority of them and I feel that I can go more in-depth with this topic.