Womens Right in Developing Countries

In most developing countries not much thought is usually given to the issue of women's rights. Right from childhood, male and female children within a family find themselves playing distinctly roles that help to shape their thoughts and growth along their individual gender lines. In this essay I shall seek to explain some of the factors which leads to the discrimination against women and girls in most developing countries these factors include: Economic, Religion, Social and cultural.

In many Developing countries the birth of a male child is a reason to celebrate where as the birth of a female child is seen as a disaster. Female infanticides and selective abortions of female foetuses are no exceptions, thus resulting in unnatural gender ratios. In some countries such as china, the situation is made worse by the government's one child policy, in china. (Daily Mail 10th April 2010) Notes that baby girls "Are aborted by the tens of millions, using all the latest technology."

This negative attitude towards girls is not the simple result of female misogyny, but most times the legal and social conditions within a local community can be a catalyst. For example if the local law stipulates that a son inherits his fathers property, most parents would rather allow the male child to use the limited resources available to go to school rather than have the female child benefit from such scarce resources. This is not to suggest that the male child is loved, more than the female child. It is just that in the opinion of the parents, it pays more to train the male child than spend resources on the girl who will soon be leaving the family to join someone else in the name of marriage. In that context, the male child rather than the female is looked unto as a valuable asset for the family future survivor. Social and legal conditions may also make it easier for a man to get a job to help support the family. One kind of discrimination may therefore promote another.

Of great importance but often ignored is the discrimination of women in religious teachings. While this is ignored in other not to cause offence to certain group of people who hold that particular religious view the denial of equal participation of women in almost all religious institutions and other social institutions in what can be called "subjugating" women is usually justified in religious teachings and practices. For example The New Testament of the Bible quotes St. Paul (I Timothy 2) as saying that women "must be silent." The Quran in Sura (4:11 says) that a "woman shall inherit less than a man," and Sura (2:282 says) that a "woman's testimony counts for half a man." Jainism also prevents the rise of women through the religious hierarchy.

Such teaching and practices lead to other religious discrimination against women in the society at large preventing women from playing a full and equal roles in the society can be found in many faith creating an environment in which violations against women are justified, former president of the United States Jimmy Carter noted in a speech on 3 Dec 2009 to the parliament of the World Religions in Australia stated that "The belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God," Mr. Carter continued, "gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale for women employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo"(The New York Times, 9 Jan 2010). the present up-heavers in a number of the Arab countries like Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya may have offered yet another platform for greater women liberation in those countries for example Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced that "Women will be able to run