“Across their lifetime, 1 in 3 women, around 736 million, are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner – a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade,” WHO announced on Wednesday.
The report from the WHO represents data from a study conducted over the course of eighteen years from 2000 to 2018.
However, the data does not report the violence during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We know that the multiple impacts of COVID-19 have triggered a “shadow pandemic” of increased reported violence of all kinds against women and girls,” UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
The risks and occurrence of gender-based violence have increased since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 100 Yazidis and Kurds from northeastern Syria (Rojava) from Darashakran camp marched on the streets of Erbil on International Women's Day, playing the daf and flute, and demanding increased rights for women.
Among them was Kurdish singer Rojin, who recalled her life as the child of an abusive father. “My father used to hit me a lot. He'd discriminate between boys and girls, they had every right and we had none. Women’s rights have been in my heart ever since I was 13,” she told Rudaw's Bilind T. Abdullah.
More than 100 Yazidis and Kurds from northeastern Syria (Rojava) from Darashakran camp marched on the streets of Erbil on #InternationalWomensDay, playing the daf and flute. [1/2] pic.twitter.com/EGedoD6eMv
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) March 9, 2021
An Oxfam report published in June found that women across Iraq, including in Kirkuk and Sulaimani, were at heightened risk of domestic violence and gender-based violence as a result of the pandemic.
“Given that Iraqi women and children - especially those with disabilities - were already exposed to high levels of risk of domestic violence pre-pandemic, these figures are only the tip of the iceberg, considering that a large portion of incidents are not reported,” read a statement released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in November noting a marked rise in incidents of gender-based violence.
According the data provided in the report 37 percent of violence against women at the age range of 15-49 happens in least developed countries with countries in Western Asia having a violence rate of 29 percent.
Gender-based violence killed 120 women in the Kurdistan Region in 2019, according to statistics from the Directorate of Combatting Violence Against Women.
A May report from the United Nations Development Programme revealed that “243 million women and girls aged 15-49 [worldwide] were subjected to sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months.”
