Sexual violence against women is continuing to rise during the pandemic all around the world. According to the World Health Organization, sexual violence is defined as “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act or other act directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting” (pg.1, paragraph 1). Around the world, 30% of women face sexual violence by their intimate partner or non-partner in their lifetime. This violence, always causes potential health consequences. Besides killing and or suicide, SVAW(rape) has some long-term impact on their reproductive, mental, and behavioral health. The violence has increased significantly during the pandemic, especially in Bangladesh.
Overall, Bangladesh 60% of men show violent manners with close partners. Just from hearing this, it already makes me worry and anxious for the women living there, that’s more than half of the amount of men there that engage in sexual violence. What makes it worse is knowing that it could be people you think you can trust. According to the United Nations population fund, domestic and sexual violence has increased 20% during the pandemic, which is quite a bit considering it’s continuing to grow. The highest number of rape cases was 1,538 and 345 gang rape incidences in 2020. What saddened me the most in the article was that 3% of rape victims in Bangladesh seek legal support. In general, it’s never good to hear that cases like this are rising globally right now in the world. However, this only makes me want to be even safer when trusting people and going places alone.
Link to article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8426986/