IPRAS

Women from the mountains in Afghanistanspecific rule. For some of them, illness is consideredas a punition of God and requires little care, for someothers, on the opposite, it is something that must betreated absolutely immediately.The women, of course, have a special status… Insome remote places they should not be touched by amale doctor… The problem is that, very often, thereis no female doctor… This is very frequently thecase in Afghanistan, where women die because theirhusbands refuse the help of a male doctor, especiallyfor delivery. This is, of course, an extreme point ofview. In most cases things are much simpler and thereal rule in the Islamic religion is that, when there is anecessity, women can be treated by any male doctor,Muslim or of any religion. Necessity creates the lawand the rule… a safe and good advice…The women’s condition: female mortalitycreates a terrible disorder• Gender mortality: this is a real economical anddemographical problem. In most of the Islamicdeveloping countries, the female to male ratio is, onaverage, 900/1000; It is the opposite in occidentalareas: 100 females for 90 males in Europe, whereasin Bangladesh and Pakistan the ratio is 100 women for106 males. Another interesting sign is that, in those twocountries, the average duration of life is the same in menand women (56 years); in Europe and America femaleslive approximately ten years longer than males…This over-mortality in the female population is due toseveral factors, such as the way of life, the number ofchildren, the amount work done by women… but alsodue to the high maternity mortality and the increasedlevel of violence towards them.• Materity mortality: in Afghanistan, one woman diesevery 21 minutes due to delivery problems! In centralAsia Islamic areas, 2000 female patients die in 100 000births! In Europe the average is only 10-20/100 000.• Violence towards women is also an important cause offemale over-mortality.It can be in the form of domestic and marital abuse. Itreaches 50% in some of these countries, the championbeing Bangladesh, where more than one wife out oftwo is regularly beaten. In Pakistan, 300 women arekilled every year by their husband, brother or son, inthe name of honor.Among the worst crimes, forced or induced suicidesby flame are very frequent in Iran, Afghanistan(especially the Herat area), Pakistan, Iraq, but also inAfrica (Zimbabwe, Egypt…)In Pakistan and Bangladesh, there are many acid attacksagainst women, committed by jealous or unsatisfiedhusbands. This type of acid burn on the face leads toextremely severe contractures and real disfigurations ofthe wives. Two NGOs have been created to fight againstthat, the “Acid Survivors Foundation” ran by ValerieKhan in Pakistan and Monira Rahman in Bangladesh.Apart from marital aggressions, these gender crimes canalso be the result of abusive punishment or usual violencesuch as stoning, rape, excision, any kind of mutilation(hand or nose…), sexual slavery and forced pregnancy.Moreover, many rapes have been committed in thesecountries as a war weapon, in order to humiliate theenemy. In Kuwait, over 5000 rapes were committedagainst the local women by the Iraqi forces, when theyinvaded this country in 1990. In Algeria, between 1995and 1998, rapes were committed in the name of the Jihadin order to render the females impure and dishonored…Issue 7 www.ipras.org IPRAS Journal 27