"I never ever understand why boys and girls are not equal to each other. In rural areas elders think that girls are born to give birth and to marry and for cleaning the house. Girls who live in rural areas¿ are not sent to schools. Their parents are not aware of the changing world yet."
Girl, aged 15, Turkey.
Cultural and family expectations weigh heavily on many girls around the world as they grow up. Often treated as second-class citizens or as the property of their parents with little say in their own destiny, girls may face exploitation, violence, and the prospect of early or forced marriage.
Domestic life
"We are five children, two older boys and three younger girls. But we the younger sisters are the housemaids every Saturday and Sunday while our two older brothers have no work during weekends because they thought that as boys, they have no responsibility to do household chores."
Barbie, aged 15, Philippines.4
Discrimination against girls within the family is probably the most difficult of all to deal with. It is also the foundation of the deep-rooted belief that girls are somehow of less value than boys. As it happens within the home, it is often hidden, and almost impossible to legislate for. Such discrimination begins at birth or before, and continues throughout a girl¿s life and into womanhood. It is the bedrock on which other forms of discrimination are built and from which violence, including violence in the home, stems.
"Those who abuse children should be mercilessly punished because they take the happiness of a pure human being, who has no fault for what happened."
Girl, Romania
Violence against women and girls, just in the context of going about their daily lives, is widespread. At least one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. In 1993, the World Bank reported that women aged between 15 and 44 'lose more Discounted Health Years of Life to rape and domestic violence than to breast cancer, cervical cancer, obstructed labour, heart disease, AIDS, respiratory infections, motor vehicle accidents or war.'
"To stop this inhuman attitude towards girls, there should be stringent laws against the practice of child marriages, and both the governments and the civil societies should initiate awareness raising campaigns at every community on gender equity and the evil consequences of child marriages."
Savitha, aged 14, India
The practice is most common in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but also occurs in other parts of the world. The numbers of girls who are married are difficult to estimate as so many marriages are not registered, but more than 100 million girls under 18, some as young as 12, are expected to marry over the next decade. The numbers of boys who marry under 18 are much lower.
"There was a woman who came to the market to buy charcoal. She found me and told my mother about a woman in Lomé who was looking for a girl like me to stay with her and do domestic work. She came to my mother and my mother gave me away. The woman gave my mother some money, but I don't know how much."
Kéméyao A., child trafficking victim, age 10, Lomé, Togo
Around 1.2 million children every year are victims of trafficking, both internationally and within national borders. Some 80 per cent of those being trafficking globally are girls and women. A significant proportion of those being trafficked annually from Eastern to Western Europe are children from poor families.
