It Ain't Easy Being Pink

Katherine Mangu-Ward | June 2, 2008

Foreign Policy releases a gimmicky but interesting list of the world's worst places to be a woman. For the most part, it could double as a list of the worst places to be a person, with an extra bonus helping of death in childbirth and disdain from the courts.

The list is done by region, with Haiti topping the Americas:

Share of women in National Assembly: 5 percent

Female-to-male income ratio: 52:100

Female literacy rate: 57 percent

In the slums around Port-au-Prince, organized gang rape is a fact of life for many Haitian women. Nearly half the young women and girls in the capital’s Cite Soleil shantytown have been raped or sexually assaulted, according to a 2006 U.N. report. Nongovernmental organizations say the problem isn’t taken seriously because many Haitians, including members of the police and judicial system, consider nonconsensual sex as rape only if the victim was a virgin. In fact, rape wasn’t even categorized as a criminal offense until 2005. In addition, if a husband finds his wife engaging in adultery in his home, the criminal code excuses him if he kills her; if a wife kills her husband under the same circumstances, she isn’t excused.

Read the rest of the list, here.

Comments

The Wine Commonsewer|6.2.08 @ 11:21AM|#

In the slums around Port-au-Prince, organized gang rape is a fact of life for many Haitian women

And that is because there aren't enough women in the National Assembly?

The Wine Commonsewer|6.2.08 @ 11:22AM|#

if a husband finds his wife engaging in adultery in his home, the criminal code excuses him if he kills her; if a wife kills her husband under the same circumstances, she isn't excused.

Always heard that about Texas.

a|6.2.08 @ 11:25AM|#

What? Our repeated invasions and occupations of Haiti haven't turned it into heaven on earth?

|6.2.08 @ 11:28AM|#

Foreign Policy releases a gimmicky but interesting list of the world's worst places to be a woman.

For a moment there, I thought this was another Hillary post.

Whew!

Brian Sorgatz|6.2.08 @ 11:28AM|#

Obviously, those hussies in Port-au-Prince are dressing themselves too sexy for their own good. They have to take some responsibility for the situation. Just saying.

Tom Walls|6.2.08 @ 11:32AM|#

Did they have to include that picture of the Moldovan woman with the moustache?

Taktix&#174|6.2.08 @ 11:34AM|#

Did they have to include that picture of the Moldovan woman with the moustache?

And couldn't they have shot her in a coffee shop or something? That poor woman looks like she's freezing to death...

Other Matt|6.2.08 @ 11:39AM|#

The strange part about Haiti, though I haven't been back there in about 12 years, is that anything that actually somewhat functioned was a result of women.

Bad Idea|6.2.08 @ 11:49AM|#

I normally use protection, but I thought, "When am I ever going to back in Haiti, anyway?"

Bingo|6.2.08 @ 11:52AM|#

But Moldova has a 99% literacy rate how can the quality of life there possibly be bad!

The Wine Commonsewer|6.2.08 @ 12:00PM|#

48 percent of girls married by the time they are 18 and some brides as young as 12. The result: poor health for mothers and babies.

Obvious nonsense. Biologically, we are designed to become parents shortly after puberty. The problem isn't the young mamas, its the poor health care.

If they really mean 'forced marriages' or something else, then let's say that instead.

The Wine Commonsewer|6.2.08 @ 12:00PM|#

The Moldovian woman is one of the chicks that was rejected for human trafficking.

|6.2.08 @ 12:11PM|#

What? Our repeated invasions and occupations of Haiti haven't turned it into heaven on earth?

The mid-90s and 2004 interventions were models of UN-led transnationalism, with UN resolutions, peace-keeping forces, and negotiated departures of ruling criminals. How's all that working out?

|6.2.08 @ 12:38PM|#

Sounds like Haiti needs an airlift shipment of scrotum tasers.

Mad Max|6.2.08 @ 12:44PM|#

"if a husband finds his wife engaging in adultery in his home, the criminal code excuses him if he kills her; if a wife kills her husband under the same circumstances, she isn't excused."

That's outrageous, unjustified discrimination . . . of *course* the wife should be excused.

(Ha ha, Mad Max is just indulging his sense of irony again . . . isn't he?)

thoreau|6.2.08 @ 1:44PM|#

R C-

It's not like those models of UN-led transnationalism were the first instances of US intervention in Haiti.

|6.2.08 @ 1:56PM|#

It's not like those models of UN-led transnationalism were the first instances of US intervention in Haiti.

Well, no. The implication was that the relevant "occupations" were cowboy-US operations, not blue-helment clusterfucks. The most recent cowboy-US intervention was, what, pre-WWII?

Geotpf|6.2.08 @ 3:18PM|#

R C Dean | June 2, 2008, 1:56pm | #

The most recent cowboy-US intervention was, what, pre-WWII?

Um, I think Iraq would qualify.

|6.2.08 @ 3:41PM|#

Iraq isn't in Haiti.

|6.2.08 @ 5:26PM|#

Iraq isn't in Haiti.

I'm gonna need a link for that, Jordan.

Rhywun|6.2.08 @ 5:41PM|#

For the most part, it could double as a list of the worst places to be a person

Agreed. The interesting cases are where the culture screws over women.

No Name Guy|6.2.08 @ 11:17PM|#

I'm shocked Suadi Arabia isn't the worst place in the Middle East.

|6.3.08 @ 2:18AM|#

It Ain't Easy Being Pink

Well it's pretty natural being punk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhFRgPI72c&feature=related

|6.3.08 @ 3:13AM|#

Obvious nonsense. Biologically, we are designed to become parents shortly after puberty.

Right, except that onset of puberty is happening earlier and earlier now, before girls have a chance to grow considerably more. Onset of puberty used to happen at 15, when pregnancy is a hell of a lot safer. Pregnancy at age 12 can be very dangerous for both mother and child.

Even in the Middle Ages, it was customary for men not to touch their child brides until the girls turned 14/15/16. Many parts of the world are now officially more backwards than Europe 700 years ago.