Christian women are particularly vulnerable to persecution
Open Doors’ See.Change. campaign seeks to highlight and honour the worth, value and purpose of Christian women and girls across the world. But why is this campaign even needed? In a recent article, Open Doors explain why millions of women and girls are acutely vulnerable to persecution for their faith and their gender, and how you can help them see change.
According to gender-specific research released last year, there was a 31% increase in violence against Christian women and girls compared to the previous year – be that sexual, physical or psychological, with the latter two seeing the biggest increase in incidents.
Sexual violence can be overt, such as Christian women being abducted by Boko Haram and used as sex slaves, or it can be covert, under the guise of forced marriage, for example. Given the honour culture of many societies, sexual violence is often used to intentionally shame and stigmatise victims as well as their families and communities. This can result in a breakdown in relationships – for instance, parents no longer want to be associated with their daughter.
This shame and stigma feed into a key reason why physical violence is also common against Christian women and girls. Men attack with impunity because victims keep quiet for fear of the dishonour it will bring and poor legal frameworks mean wrongdoing often goes punished. This, in turn, makes women and girls increasingly vulnerable to psychological violence.
You can read the full original article here.
