VOA常速英语2008年-Rights Group Marks Women's Day With Dire Report

By Tendai Maphosa
London
06 March 2008

The human rights group Amnesty International issued a report ahead of the March 8 International Women's Day on the threats and abuse faced by school-age girls. Others, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, marked the day calling the world's attention to women's issues and appealing for change. Tendai Maphosa has this report for VOA from London.

The Amnesty International report zoomed¹ in on the problems faced by school-age girls around the globe.

Amnesty says that girls face physical and psychological abuse from classmates as well as from teachers. It adds that some girls are also threatened with sexual assault by other students, are offered higher marks by teachers in exchange for sexual favors and are even raped².

Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice, in a speech to a group of influential³ women gathering⁴ in Brussels, said the International Women's Day is a day to focus on the problems women and girls still face in their daily lives.

Addressing a European Union-sponsored conference on women, she said women play a crucial in today's globalized world and in development.

"Poverty is rampant⁵ where women lack education and economic opportunity," said Rice. "Justice is thwarted⁶ when women are denied the right to play a political role in their nations; disease flourishes and spreads when women's perspectives are not taken into account in terms of disease prevention. In today's modern world, no country can achieve lasting⁷ success and stability and security if half of its population is sitting on the sidelines."

The Amnesty International report says the abuse of girls is in one form or another found around the globe, but it is the worst in countries experiencing conflict. The report refers to a 2006 study of schoolgirls in Malawi where 50 percent of girls said they had been touched in a sexual manner without permission by either their teachers or a fellow student. Another study, this time in the United States, found that 83 percent of girls in grades eight through 11 (aged around 12 to 16) in public schools experienced some form of sexual harassment⁸.

Widney Brown, of Amnesty International, says societal attitudes at school must change.

"The reason we are targeting schools is because it's the responsibility of the government directly, they can't say this happens behind closed doors we don't know anything about it," said Brown. "A significant number of children are not getting access to even primary education and the majority of them are girls and we see violence as an obstacle to girls' access to education."

The report acknowledges that both girls and boys of school age can be the victims of violence. However, it says that girls are more likely to be the victims of certain types of abuse, such as sexual harassment and sexual assault. This, the report adds, undermines their self-esteem, educational success and long-term health and well being.

1 zoomed   

v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去式 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Traffic zoomed past us. 车辆从我们身边疾驰而过。
• Cars zoomed helter-skelter, honking belligerently. 大街上来往车辆穿梭不停，喇叭声刺耳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

6 thwarted   

阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过

参考例句：

• The guards thwarted his attempt to escape from prison. 警卫阻扰了他越狱的企图。
• Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the rain. 我们的野餐计划因雨受挫。

7 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

8 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。