The Daily Star | Star Digital Report
Bangladesh has ranked 152 out of 170 (with an index value of 0.594) on the Women, Peace, and Security Index 2021.
The report on women’s safety was published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS).
In terms of women’s employment, Bangladesh scored 35.2 out of 100; for mean years of schooling 6 out of 15; and 35.8 out of 100 on women’s financial inclusion, according to the index.
The index also included the following parameters: percentage of women’s cellphone use, the share of parliament seats, discriminatory norms, bias towards the male child, perception of community safety, current intimate partner violence and organised violence.
In South Asia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan ranked above Bangladesh at 148th, 95th, 105th and 129th positions, respectively.
Pakistan and Afghanistan fared worst on the index in the region — at 167th and 170th positions, respectively.
Afghanistan scored worst globally, falling in relative and absolute terms since 2017. The collapse of the Afghan government and the rise of the Taliban in August 2021 seemingly jeopardised past progress for the Afghan women and threatened reversals in access to rights and justice, said the study.
Between 2017 and 2021, Pakistan regressed on two measures of inclusion — women’s mean years of schooling and rates of paid employment.
The bottom five countries on the index include Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, Yemen, Syria — at 166th, 168th and 169th positions respectively.
The highest-ranked counties on this year’s index are: Norway, Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Luxembourg at first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
