To 1

To, Minh Ngoc (Camille)

Dr. Stacey Said

ENGLISH 10803 Intro Comp: Writing as Inquiry, TTH 9:30 AM

10 October 2021

Of Women and Violence

INTRODUCTION

After the United States and its allies overthrew the Taliban in 2001, Afghan girls'

elementary school enrollment has increased from 0% to over 80%. The infant mortality rate has

dropped by half. Forced marriage has been outlawed (“Why Nations That Fail Women Fail”).

Many of those schools had shady reputations, and many families disobeyed the law still.

However, it is of little question that Afghan women and girls have achieved significant progress

in the last two decades, or that those accomplishments are now in jeopardy because of gender

inequality. Broadly defined, gender inequality refers to disparities in status, power, money,

health, and employment between men and women. When these discrepancies are avoidable and

unfair, it is known as gender inequity – the product of sexism. There is growing evidence

showing Hillary Clinton was correct a decade ago when she made the remark, “The subjugation

of women is…a threat to the common security of our world” (Hudson and Leidl 3). Women’s

oppression makes societies much more violent and unstable, and gender inequality lies at the

root of the problem.

FIRST CAUSE: SURPLUS OF SINGLE MEN

One of the several possible causes for this violence and instability is a surplus of single

young men. Single men who are dissatisfied with their lives are more prone to conduct violent

crimes or join rebel groups. Inability to find a partner can promote competition, which can lead
To 2

to violence, in two ways: targeting other men and potential partners. Unfortunately, violence

provides an opportunity for young men to kill potential rivals (i.e., other men) and kidnap or rape

women. In “Homicide,” Martin Daly and Margo Wilson remark: “Any creature that is

recognizably on track towards complete reproductive failure must somehow expend effort, often

at risk of death, to try to improve its present life trajectory” (427).

SECOND CAUSE: SKEWED SEX RATIOS

So, what leads to this surplus of single young men? The answer is, essentially, skewed

sex ratios. In many regions of the world, parents routinely abort or fatally neglect female fetuses

and children, resulting in exceptionally high girl child and infant mortality rates. It is of little

coincidence that the country with the lowest Gender Inequality Index (GII), Yemen, also has one

of the highest sex ratios for children under the age of five dying in the world, at 54.3 female

child deaths per thousand live births (“Yemen Female Child Mortality Rate, 1960-2020”).

Polygamy also causes uneven sex proportions, thus surpluses of single men. Having multiple

spouses for males at the top spells a lonely bachelorhood for those at the bottom. Polygamous

communities suffer “higher rates of murder, theft, rape, social disruption, kidnapping (especially

of females), sexual slavery and prostitution,” note Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd and Peter

Richerson in “The Puzzle of Monogamous Marriage” (Henrich, et al. 657-669). The graph below

shows the association between the Gender Inequality Index (GII) on the x-axis and male to

female under-five mortality rate on the y-axis, at country level, worldwide.

To 3

ROOT CAUSE: GENDER INEQUALITY

Son preference and polygamy practice are not the only contributing factors to the

violence and instability of nations with women subjugation. Lying underneath all these pre-

modern attitudes to women is the root cause: gender inequality. Discrimination against half of

humanity takes the forms of sexist family laws, unequal property rights, early marriage for girls,

patrilocal marriage, bride prices, violence against women, and legal indulgence of women

subjugation. Mariam (first name changed), a female friend of mine from Afghanistan, one of the

worst countries for women rights, shared her story from four years ago. She was abusively

harassed and raped at the age of 15 by her male teacher. The rapist escaped punishment by

marrying his own victim. “They [Mariam’s parents] told me to just go with the wedding and not
To 4

press charges. He [the rapist] would kill me. It’s too shameful and humiliating for my family to

let others know what was done to me anyways” (Akhtar).

FIRST EFFECT: LEGAL CASES

Adverse effects from gender inequality are reflected in laws and customs around the

world. According to Iranian law, the husband determines his wife’s place of residence and thus

controls her freedom of movement (Art. 1114). In addition, the husband may prevent his wife

from exercising a certain profession if he deems it “incompatible with the family interests or the

dignity of himself or his wife” (Art. 1117). The Iranian Penal Code allows a man who witnesses

his wife in the act of having sexual intercourse with another man to kill both of them if he is

certain that his wife is a willing participant (Art. 630). The Penal Code applying to the northern

states of Nigeria is another example. Section 55(1)(d), subject to customs that have been

recognized as lawful, allows a husband to “correct his wife” as long as it does not amount to

“grievous hurt.” Section 282 discusses rape and specifies that sexual intercourse by a man with

his wife is not rape if she has gone through puberty (Nigeria Penal Code Act).

SECOND EFFECT: REBEL FORCES

Gender inequality fuels material motives that rebel forces use to foster violence. To them,

wives are prizes for “holy warriors.” From Islamic State to Boko Haram to the Lord’s Resistance

Army in Uganda, rebel forces often let their troops treat females as spoils of war (“Of Men and

Mayhem”). This encourages poor, single, sex-starved young men to join terrorist groups. As

another result of sexual abuse against women, terrorist organizations are increasingly relying on

female operatives. Women and children have been mobilized and armed as "swords" to carry out

assaults for Boko Haram, Nigeria's most major source of violence since the country's democratic

transition in 1999. Suicide bombings, shootings, whipping victims, slicing throats, and
To 5

kidnapping other women are just a few examples of these attacks (Bloom and Matfess). Women

are used by terrorist organizations because they attract less notice and are less likely to be

searched than men.

MAIN EFFECT: SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Above all, gender discrimination takes a heavy toll on women rights and the social-

economic development of societies in general. Women are stripped of their rights of education,

marriage, political leadership, private property ownership, and more. The effect this unequal

access to opportunities has on nations’ general development is striking. In Syria and

Afghanistan, two worst countries to be a female, gender-based violence is widespread, over 80%

of women are uneducated, and many women die during childbirth (Onyanga-Omara).

Switzerland and Norway, in contrast, are countries with the highest Gender Inequality Index
To 6

(GII) and, not surprisingly, the highest Human Development Index (HDI), indicating strong,

stable, thriving citizens and economies (“Human Development Reports”).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, while all conflicts have complex causes, it may be no coincidence that

countries with the worst women subjugation are also the most turbulent, violent, and unstable

ones. Other contributing factors stem from this root cause of gender inequality, whose

consequences are profound and severe. In order to address this problem properly, governments

should mean it when they declare they wish to liberate half of mankind. After all, no one can

hope to understand the world if they ignore the interests of half of the population.
To 7

Works Cited

“1. How Sex Came To Matter In U.S. Foreign Policy.” The Hillary Doctrine, by Valerie M

Hudson and Patricia Leidl, Columbia University Press, 2017, p. 3.

“8. The Logic of Same-Sex Conflict.” Homicide: Foundations of Human Behavior, by Martin

Daly and Margo Wilson, Routledge, 2017, p. 427.

Akhtar, Mariam (Pseudonym). Personal interview. 9 October 2021.

Bloom, Mia, and Hilary Matfess. “Women as Symbols and Swords in Boko Haram's Terror.”

PRISM | National Defense University, The Journal of Complex Operations, 1 Mar. 2016,

cco.ndu.edu/PRISM/PRISM-volume-6-no1/Article/685093/women-as-symbols-and-

swords-in-boko-harams-terror/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2021.

“Civil Code of Iran (Marital Duties).” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School,

www.law.cornell.edu/women-and-justice/resource/civil_code_of_iran_

%28marital_duties%29. Accessed 8 Oct. 2021.

Henrich, Joseph, et al. The Puzzle of Monogamous Marriage. Philosophical Transactions of the

Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367, no. 1589 (2012): 657-669.

“Human Development Reports.” Human Development Reports, United Nations Development

Programme, 2020, hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII. Accessed 10 Oct. 2021.

“The Islamic Penal Code of Iran, Book 5.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School,

www.law.cornell.edu/women-and-

justice/resource/the_islamic_penal_code_of_iran_book_5. Accessed 8 Oct. 2021.

“Nigeria Penal Code Act.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School,

www.law.cornell.edu/women-and-justice/resource/nigeria_penal_code_act. Accessed 8

Oct. 2021.
To 8

“Of Men and Mayhem.” The Economist, 21 Jan. 2016, www.economist.com/special-

report/2016/01/21/of-men-and-mayhem. Accessed 9 Oct. 2021.

Onyanga-Omara, Jane. “And the Worst Country to Be a Woman Is ...” USA Today, Gannett

Satellite Information Network, 13 Mar. 2018,

www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/03/08/worst-country-woman/406182002/.

Accessed 10 Oct. 2021.

“Why Nations That Fail Women Fail.” The Economist, 11 Sept. 2021,

www.economist.com/leaders/2021/09/11/why-nations-that-fail-women-fail. Accessed 5

Oct. 2021.

“Yemen Female Child Mortality Rate, 1960-2020.” Knoema,

knoema.com/atlas/Yemen/topics/Health/Health-Status/Female-child-mortality-rate.

Accessed 6 Oct. 2021.