women "go missing" by the millions

[niyad]

Women go 'missing' by the millions
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Tribune Media Services International

SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 2006


AMSTERDAM

As I was preparing for this article, I asked a friend who is Jewish if it was appropriate to use the term "holocaust" to portray the worldwide violence against women. He was startled. But when I read him the figures in a 2004 policy paper published by the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, he said yes, without hesitation.

One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect.

How could this possibly be true? Here are some of the factors:

In countries where the birth of a boy is considered a gift and the birth of a girl a curse from the gods, selective abortion and infanticide eliminate female babies.

Young girls die disproportionately from neglect because food and medical attention is given first to brothers, fathers, husbands and sons.
. . . . . . . .

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/24/opinion/edali.php

[varkam]

1. Are we equating selective abortion to murder now?

Tsk. Tsk.

[Der Blaue Engel]

2. Way to miss the point

Tsk. Tsk.

[varkam]

3. I get the point

But I didn't think I would have anything to add that the article didn't already touch upon. I agree that violence against women is a major social concern, I just thought the mentioning of selective abortion in an article regarding violence against women was interesting.

[Der Blaue Engel]

4. I can see how one might balk at the connection

but I don't think the implication is that abortion is murder, rather that its use in such circumstances is indicative of the hatred toward women that leads to abuse and murder. I doubt that freedom to choose even comes into the picture in those cases.