US State Department makes baseless claims against Iran (10)

The US administration stages large-scale publicity campaigns on the fulfillment of women’s rights, which reach their peak especially throughout the US presidential campaigns. The US State Department reports express concern over the violation of women’s rights in other countries. However, what is the state of women’s rights in the US, itself?

The issue of violence against women and its related cases was first taken into consideration in a declaration which was released on December 20, 1993, in the US. Till then, even the convention against abuse of women that was approved in the year 1979, had not taken into account this issue of concern.

Meanwhile, introduction of November 25 by the United Nations as the day of campaign against abuse of women was of paramount importance, despite its symbolic aspect.

Meanwhile, the cases of violence against women have sharply surged in the US. In fact, despite the efforts of women’s rights groups in the US in the past two decades, the cases of rape and violence against women are still on the rise in that country.

One of the cases of breach of women’s rights in the US is violence against women, which has been prohibited in the international conventions which campaign against abuse of women.

A reliable American website, in a report, has blasted the US claims over the violation of women’s rights in Islamic communities. This website goes on the reveal every year; more than 500,000 women are raped in the US. There are more than 8.3 million other reported cases of violence against women in the US.

In accordance of this report, nearly 30% of women who refer to hospitals’ emergency units in the US have been beaten by their spouses.

These reports prove beyond doubt that violence against women is one of the important cases of violation of human rights in that country. Reports on abuse of women in the US army and universities have made the headlines in the year 2014. Meanwhile, the low-income, young American women, aged from 20-24, are more vulnerable to home violence and sexual abuse. In fact, every two minutes a young low-income woman in the US is raped.

Out of every five female American students, one of them has been raped, while only less than 5% of these cases are reported to the police force.

In accordance to a report which was published in the US in September 2013; roughly 120,000 American women were raped in the first half of the year 2013. Meanwhile, 44% of the related victims have been minors and 80% of these victims were less than 30 years old. This is while nearly 60% of the rape cases go unreported and out of every 16 rapists, 15 of them are not even jailed.

The staggering surge in abuse of women in the US army has also generated concerns in that country.

The US Department of Defense, in its 9th annual report in May 2013, warned against the steep rise of abuse of women among its troopers. In accordance to this report, more than 30,000 complaints against rape and sexual abuse have been filed in the US army in the past two years.

Latest figures have uncovered that 8.15% of American women have been beaten by their spouses. The majority of these victims have later suffered from major physical and mental ailments, hugely impacting their lives.

Based on US government’s figures, 25% of American women have been victims of home violence and roughly 1.3 million American women have been battered by their husbands.

Meanwhile, the indifference of US government toward abuse of women has led to a surge in these cases.

In general, American women face discrimination in recruitment, and payroll, and are mistreated in workplaces. Overall, 17% of American women have experienced sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, women also face discrimination in political and social activities in the US. For instance, only 17% of US Congress seats are occupied by women. The tech companies are not inclined as such on women’s membership in their boards of directors. The rate of poverty is high among American women. Over 17 million women lived below the poverty line in the US in the year 2010, which is a record high in the past 17 years.

Moreover, around 47 million Americans, which are mainly women, can no longer benefit from the services rendered by the public health sector in that country.

These realities prove that the US claims to champion human rights are nothing but sheer lies. Discriminations against women in the US should be probed by human rights organizations.

MR/SS