“Too often peace is measured by the silence of guns. But is a woman at peace when she faces violence in her own home? Is a young woman at peace when she is living in fear of a harmful practice like female genital mutilation or being married off young?"
— Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, UN Population Fund
— Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, UN Population Fund
Imagine feeling fear all throughout your body every time you walked down the street, knowing how likely it was that you could be attacked. Worse, imagine knowing that if you were attacked — leaders in your community and the justice system would not care.
For women all over the world, that’s not an act of imagination—it’s daily reality. Globally, almost one in eight women has experienced violence at home in the past year alone. From street safety to domestic abuse to life in a warzone, violence is a constant presence in women’s lives; and, in the current pandemic, it’s gotten much worse.