Women in Chad

Women in Chad, a landlocked country in Central Africa, are the mainstay of its predominantly rural-based economy and they outnumber the men.[2]

Women in Chad

A Sara girl from Chad
Gender Inequality Index
Value	NR
Rank	NR
Maternal mortality (per 100,000)	1,100 (2010)
Women in parliament	12.8% (2012)
Females over 25 with secondary education	NA
Women in labour force	64.4% (2011)
Global Gender Gap Index[1]
Value	0.580 (2018)
Rank	145th out of 153

Mao Women

Women face widespread discrimination and violence. Female genital mutilation, while technically illegal, is still widely practiced.[3] Extrajudicial killings, beatings, torture, and rape were committed by security forces and other abuses with "near total" impunity.[4][5][6] Amnesty International has reported that "The widespread insecurity in eastern Chad had particularly severe consequences for women, who suffered grave human rights abuses, including rape, during attacks on villages" by Janjawid militia from Sudan.[6]

Education

Despite the government's efforts, overall educational levels remained low at the end of the first decade of independence. In 1971 about 99 percent of women over the age of fifteen could not read, write, or speak French, which at the time was the only official national language; literacy in Arabic stood at 7.8 percent. In 1982 the overall literacy rate stood at about 15 percent.[7]

Major problems have hindered the development of Chadian education since independence. Financing for education has been very limited. Limited facilities and personnel also have made it difficult for the education system to provide adequate instruction. Overcrowding is a major problem; some classes have up 100 students, many of whom are repeaters. In the years just after independence, many primary-school teachers had only marginal qualifications. On the secondary level, the situation was even worse.[7]

In 2004, 39.6 percent of children ages 5 to 14 years were attending school. Educational opportunities for girls are limited, mainly due to cultural traditions. Fewer girls enroll in secondary school than boys, primarily due to early marriage. In 1999, 54.0 percent of children starting primary school reached grade 5.[8]

Women's rights

Human trafficking

Chad is a source and destination country for children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced labor and forced prostitution. The country’s trafficking problem is primarily internal and frequently involves parents entrusting children to relatives or intermediaries in return for promises of education, apprenticeship, goods, or money; selling or bartering children into involuntary domestic servitude or herding is used as a means of survival by families seeking to reduce the number of mouths to feed.[9]

Underage Chadian girls travel to larger towns in search of work, where some are subsequently subjected to prostitution. Some girls are compelled to marry against their will, only to be forced by their husbands into involuntary domestic servitude or agricultural labor. In past reporting periods, traffickers transported children from Cameroon and the CAR to Chad’s oil producing regions for commercial sexual exploitation; it is unknown whether this practice persisted in 2009.[9]

Female genital mutilation

60 percent of Chadian women had been subject to female genital mutilation in 1995. The procedure is a traditional rite of passage as a girl moves into adulthood and it is followed regardless of religious orientation. It is equally common amongst Muslims, Christians and animists. Those who attain adulthood without being mutilated generally avoid it for life.[10] Over 80 percent of the girls in Chad who suffered genital mutilation had been cut between the age of 5 and 14.[11]

Gender Gap Report

In 2012, the World Economic Forum ranked Chad among the worst regions in their Global Gender Gap Report.[12]

Polygamy

Polygamy is legal in Chad, and it is estimated that over a third of women live in polygamous marriages.[13]

International treaties

Chad has signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.[14][15][16][17]

References

1. "The Global Gender Gap Report 2018" (PDF). World Economic Forum. pp. 10–11.
2. "Rural Poverty in Chad". Rural poverty portal. International fund for agricultural development. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
3. Chad (2007) Freedom House. Accessed on September 4, 2007.
4. "Chad" Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2006. United States Department of State. Accessed on September 4, 2007.
5. Chad: Events of 2006 Human Rights Watch. Accessed on September 4, 2007.
6. Annual Report: Chad Amnesty International. Accessed on September 4, 2007.
7. Chad country study. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
8. "Chad". 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor Archived December 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor (2006). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
9. "Chad". Trafficking in Persons Report 2010. U.S. Department of State (June 14, 2010). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
10. "Chad: Report on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female Genital Cutting (FGC)" (PDF). US Department of State. 1 June 2001. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
11. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A statistical overview and exploration of the dynamics of change (PDF). New York: UNICEF. 2013., 47, 183.
12. Women still face gender gap in jobs, wages: report
13. "Chad". Social Institutions and Gender Index.
14. United Nations. "United Nations Treaty Collection: Chapter IV: Human Rights: 8. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. New York, 18 December 1979". Archived from the original on 23 August 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
15. United Nations. "United Nations Treaty Collection: Chapter IV: Human Rights: 9. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. New York, 10 December 1984". Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
16. United Nations. "United Nations Treaty Collection: Chapter IV: Human Rights: 11. Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York, 20 November 1989". Archived from the original on 11 February 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
17. United Nations. "United Nations Treaty Collection: Chapter IV: Human Rights: 11c. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. New York, 25 May 2000". Retrieved 29 August 2012.

External links