The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

Milly Burns, (she/her), LVI, takes a tour around the world highlighting the strength and empowerment of women across the globe.

Do you know what’s happening to women around the world as you read this? Due to poor media coverage and a lack of vocalisation about the terrible things going on, many people are simply not aware. It is my intention to enlighten you on the tragic things that countless women must endure, focusing in on four countries:Afghanistan, Russia, Mexico and China. Women in Afghanistan In short, women in Afghanistan have lost all their rights due to the Taliban taking over.Women are being forced into marriages and girls can no longer attend school.They are forced to wear a burqa (a type of Muslim garment that covers the face and body entirely) whether they want to or not and they have always to be accompanied by a male escort. Recently, the Taliban started hunting down women who have organised peaceful protests and these women will sadly, most likely never be seen or heard of again. Recently, the Taliban released a statement asserting that midwives are no longer necessary because ‘the life of the mother is in the hands of God.’ According to the United Nations (UN), the child mortality rate in Afghanistan makes up for 27% of child mortalities around the world.

there is no physical damage to the victim, the perpetrator cannot be punished by law. Police officers routinely ignore domestic disturbance calls and at least 12,000 women have been murdered by their partners in Russia in the last year. Compared to a gender pay gap of 7% (2020) in the UK, women in Russia earn, on average, 30% less than men.This leads to higher poverty rates for women which puts them in dangerous environments. Studies show that a fifth of all women have been physically abused by a partner and the number of deaths is nine times the number of deaths in the US, though Russia’s population is less than half the size. Women in Mexico Last year alone 4000 women and girls were murdered in Mexico. This represents an increase of approximately ten murders each day, compared to seven a day in 2019. In addition, a further 2000 women have gone missing and will probably never be found.The pandemic has only amplified violence against women and shelters have reported an 80% increase in calls. Mexico’s president,Andrés Manuel López Obrador,, has made several statements denying that violence against women is taking place, stating that 90% of the calls were fake.This not only invalidates thousands of women but encourages

them not to reach out for help. He claims that the women who are protesting have been manipulated by his political foes. Furthermore, less than one in ten receive any sort of punishment, which leads to women who report their plight often being revictimized. Women in China In China, women are subjected to ‘Ghost Marriages.’ Originally, this type of wedding was strictly for the dead - a ritual conducted by the living to wed two single deceased people. In recent times, however, some of these have involved one living person being married to a corpse, which has proven to be deadly. For years there has been evidence of this ritual taking place in certain parts of China.There have been cases where a living person has been “married” to a corpse in a secret ritual, but more alarmingly reports of grave robbery and even murder have also surfaced. In 2015, it was reported that 14 female corpses were stolen in one village in Shanxi province.Villagers said tomb-raiders stole the bodies to make money.A man arrested in Liang Cheng County, Inner Mongolia last year told police officers that he murdered a woman so that he could make money by selling her body to a family looking for a ghost bride. Sadly, it isn’t unheard of for women to be murdered and sold to be used in ghost weddings, their bodies fetching around 100,000 yuan (£11,600).

Women in Russia

Russia recently decriminalised domestic violence against family members. If violence happens no more than once in a single year, or if

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