The poll addressed the overall risks faced by women specifically in six key areas. Nigeria has been ranked as the ninth most dangerous country for women to live according to a new poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation.The foundation contacted 548 experts focused on women’s issues to conduct a global perception poll to highlight the most dangerous countries for women and ranked India as the worst in number 1.Other countries ahead of Nigeria in the ranking are Afghanistan (2), Syria (3), Somalia (4), Saudi Arabia (5), Pakistan (6), Democratic Republic of Congo (7), and Yemen (8). The United States ranks in 10th position.The poll addressed the overall risks faced by women specifically regarding healthcare, access to economic resources, customary practices, sexual violence, non-sexual violence and human trafficking.Nigeria was ranked ninth with human rights groups accusing the country’s military of torture, rape and killing civilians during its nine-year fight against Islamist insurgency by terrorist group, Boko Haram. The terrorist group is responsible for the death of over 30,000 people and the displacement of millions, resulting in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.How Nigeria was rankedAccording to the poll, respondents ranked Nigeria as the fourth most dangerous country for women when it came to human trafficking which includes domestic servitude, forced labour, bonded labour, forced marriage and sexual slavery. The poll also noted that tens of thousands of Nigerian women are trafficked into Europe for sexual exploitation.The country also ranked sixth worst for women regarding customary practice (culture and religion) including acid attacks, female genital mutilation, child marriage, forced marriage, punishment/retribution through stoning or physical abuse or mutilation and female infanticide/foeticide.The country was also ranked in 10th position in regards to sexual violence on women including rape as a weapon of war, domestic rape, rape by a stranger, the lack of access to justice in rape cases, sexual harassment and coercion into sex as a form of corruption.The country was not ranked among the top 10 countries that discriminate against women in regards to job discrimination, inability to make a livelihood, discriminatory land, property or inheritance rights, lack of access to education and lack of access to adequate nutrition; and was also not in the top 10 list of countries that inflict non-sexual violence on women including conflict-related violence and forms of domestic physical and mental abuse.ALSO READ: Nigeria now has the highest number of extremely poor people in the worldSurprisingly, Nigeria also did not rank among the top 10 most dangerous countries for women regarding healthcare in terms of maternal mortality, lack of access to healthcare, lack of control over reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.
