Women killed one day in the world

According to new data released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), an average of 137 women around the world are killed each day by a partner or family member.

They say it makes "home the place most likely to kill a woman".

More than half of the 87,000 women killed in 2017 are reported to be dying at the hands of their loved ones.

Of this figure, about 30,000 were killed by an intimate partner and another 20,000 by a parent.

BBC 100 Women wanted to know more about the women behind the numbers. In October, we reviewed reports of killings of women related to gender on the first day of this month. We will share below some of their stories and find out more about how these murders were reported.

Male homicide rates still higher

Data collected by UNODC show that "men are about four times more likely to die as a result of a homicide than women."

The UN says men are responsible for eight out of ten homicide victims worldwide.

However, the same report suggests that more than eight victims of homicide committed by an intimate partner are women.

"Intimate partner violence continues to place a heavy burden on women disproportionately," the report says.

Forty-seven women, 21 countries, one day

United Nations statistics summarize the findings for 2017 from homicide statistics provided by government sources. The figures for "killings of women and girls related to sex" or "femicide" are collected according to the criteria of domestic / marital homicide.

BBC 100 Women and BBC Monitoring have decided to learn more about the women behind the numbers.

We followed the media coverage of women killed by another person on October 1, 2018 around the world. According to our regional specialists, 47 women have been killed, apparently for reasons of sex, in 21 different countries. Most of these murders are still under investigation.

Here are five of these cases, initially reported by local media and then verified by local authorities contacted by the BBC.

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Family document

Judith Chesang, 22 years old, Kenya

On Monday, October 1, Judith Chesang and her sister Nancy were in the fields harvesting their sorghum crop.

Judith, a mother of three, had just separated from her husband, Laban Kamuren, and had decided to return to her parents' village in the north of the country.

Shortly after the sisters took office, he arrived at the family farm where he attacked and killed Judith.

Local police said that he had since been killed by villagers.

The UN report says that Africa is the country where women are most likely to be killed by their intimate partner or a family member. It occurred at a rate of 3.1 deaths per 100,000 people.

Asia had the highest number of women killed by intimate partners or family members in 2017, with a total of 20,000.

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Manohar Shewale

Neha Sharad Chaudury, 18 years old, India

Neha Sharad Chaudury died at an alleged "honor killing" at the age of 18. She had gone out to celebrate with her boyfriend. The police confirmed to the BBC that his parents had not approved the relationship.

His parents and another family member are accused of having murdered them at home that night.

The investigation is continuing and all three people are still in custody pending their trial.

The BBC learned from the lawyer representing Neha's parents and his male relative that they intended to deny the charges.

Hundreds of people are killed each year for falling in love or getting married against the wishes of their family. It is difficult to obtain official data on so-called crimes of honor, as these crimes are often neither registered nor reported.

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Individual via Amnesty International

Zeinab Sekaanvan, 24 years old, Iran

Zeinab Sekaanvan was executed by the Iranian authorities for the murder of her husband.

Zeinab was born in northwestern Iran into a poor conservative family of Kurdish origin. As a teenager, she ran away to get married in the hope of finding a better life.

Amnesty International claims that her husband was violent and refused to divorce her and that her complaints were ignored by the police.

She was arrested for the murder of her husband at the age of 17.

Her supporters, including Amnesty, say that she was tortured to confess to the murder of her husband, beaten by the police and did not receive a fair trial.

The UNODC report suggests that women who kill their intimate partners have often experienced "long periods of physical abuse".

Meanwhile, male abusers have generally motivated "possessiveness, jealousy and fear of dropping out," the report says. This seems to be the case of another long-time couple found dead in Brazil the very day of Zeinab's execution.

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Reproduction / Facebook

Sandra Lucia Hammer Moura, 39 years old, Brazil

Sandra Lucia Hammer Moura married Augusto Aguiar Ribeiro at the age of 16.

The couple had been separated for five months when she had killed him.

Jardim Taquari's police confirmed to BBC Brasil that she had been stabbed to the neck.

They found a video of her husband confessing the crime on his mobile phone. He said that Sandra was already dating another man and that he felt betrayed.

He also stated in the video that he would not be arrested because the couple would go together to the "glory of the Lord". He then hanged in what had been their room.

Sandra's case highlights a form of murder known as "murder-suicide" – when an individual kills one or more people before killing themselves.

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PHOTOPQR / THE PROGRES / Photo Jean-Pierre BALFIN

Marie-Amélie Vaillat, 36 years old, France

Marie-Amélie was stabbed to death by her husband, Sébastien Vaillat.

The couple separated after four years of marriage.

He attacked her with a knife before confessing to the police. A few days later, he was killed in prison.

In front of the door of the lingerie shop of Marie-Amélie Vaillat, rue Bichat, the inhabitants left a sea of ​​flowers and organized a march in his memory.

The assassination of Marie-Amelie took place the same day the French government announced new plans to combat domestic violence.

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PHOTOPQR / THE PROGRES / Photo Jean-Pierre BALFIN

What does it take for the murder of a woman to be reported?

To gather these stories, BBC Monitoring's international network of journalists and researchers analyzed television, radio, print, online media and social media for reports of women killed, apparently for related to gender, 1 October 2018.

They discovered 47 cases of women killed that day in the world. We have shared only some of these cases. There are many others whose motives were unclear or unidentified authors.

The new UNODC report suggests that much of the violence against women is "largely under-reported to the authorities and that much of this violence is hidden" .

Rebecca Skippage, who led the project for BBC Monitoring, found that behind the numbers, "the way in which the media has reported their lives and deaths has revealed a great deal about how women are perceived by different societies around the world. ".

She explains, "We were looking for the dead in a day, but we searched the stories of that day for a month. We found that the lag in reporting, the tone of coverage or the scarcity of information often told a wider story about the status of women in this region. "

Maryam Azwer works for BBC Monitoring and has collected much of the final data.

"This concerns both unreported deaths and those that are," she says.

"Those whose stories never reached the media, were not reported, were not verified or were not This leaves you puzzled: what does it take for the murder of a woman to be important enough to be reported? "

Find out how BBC Monitoring conducted the research.

Help and advice

If you, or anyone you know, have been the victim of domestic violence or domestic violence, these UK organizations may be able to help you.

Outside the UK, there are other organizations that advise and protect people at risk of violence or abuse. If you feel unsafe, try to find the local organizations that can best advise you and help you.

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