The Perpetual Plight Of Females Throughout The World

By Rupert Johnson

The mistreatment, harassment, and general denigration of females is not a recent phenomenon, it is as old as the inception of the human race. Although there has been concerted efforts, particularly in Western societies to curtail and even stamp out this insidious evil, millions of women and girls around the globe are still subjected to crushing physical and psychological abuses of all kinds.

With every passing day we have been inundated with horror stories of the kidnapping, brutal beatings, mutilations, unjust incarceration, murder, and torture of innocent females.

Of course the most recent and outrageous disregard for the rights and well-being of females is the dastardly kidnapping of over 300 Nigerian school girls by militant extremists. The girls, aged 16-18, were forcefully snatched from their boarding accommodation over four weeks ago.

The primary motive of this militant Islamist organization named Boko Haram is two-fold. This group of terrorists are not only determined to de-Christianize the girls, but to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of their imprisoned colleagues.

This state of affairs is extremely disturbing. But what is even more disturbing is the fact that the Nigerian government with its well- equipped armed forces did very little in the form of prevention and also did very little to hunt down these terrorists and secure the release of the school girls.

The only glimmer of hope in this sordid affair is the fact that that these extremists seem to have miscalculated and overplayed their hand. They perhaps did not expect worldwide condemnation of their actions. With the determined resolve of most of the civilized world this group of terrorist may eventually be wiped out.

But while Canada should be very focussed on the release of the Nigerian girls, it should also be very focussed on the current plight of aboriginal females. Indeed, the daily abuse of aboriginal women and girls is shameful to say the least.

It has been reported that aboriginal women are more than 3 times likely to be abused than non-aboriginal women. The RCMP has documented that “a total of 1181 indigenous women and girls have been murdered or are missing between 1980 and 2012. Of this staggering figure “1017 are homicide victims, 164 indigenous women and girls are still missing and 225 cases are still unsolved.” The Report also states that “Indigenous women and girls make up 4.3 per cent of the total female population [in Canada], but account for 11.3 percent of the murdered and missing.”

These disproportionate figures should be enough to warrant a national inquiry, but it is sad to say that the Canadian government has bluntly refused to agree to the United Nations’ request to hold such an inquiry. In fact this present Canadian government has shown little or no regard for the plight of Aboriginal people in general and for Aboriginal women and girls in particular.

While the entire world should pay more than lip service to secure the release of the Nigerian schools, every country should send a strong message to all extremist groups that the disregard for human rights and freedoms will not be tolerated. It is full time that this age-old abuse of females be ended.

Rupert Johnson can be reached at: r.b.johnson@sympatico.ca.