Investigating The Causes and Effects Of Gender Based Violence on Women in New York Community in Sierra Leone. Case Study: Bo City

Gender-based violence involves men and women in whom the female is usually the target, and is derived from unequal power relationships between men and women. Violence is directed specifically against a woman because she is a woman or affects women in every aspect of their lives.It includes, but is not limited to, physical, sexual, and psychological harm. The most pervasive form of gender-based violence is abuse of a woman by intimate male partners. Other school of taught view gender-based violence to be battering, intimate partner violence (including marital rape, sexual violence, and dowry/bride price-related violence, feticide, sexual abuse of female children in the household, honor crimes, early marriage, forced marriage, female genital mutilation (FBM)/cutting and other traditional practices harmful to women, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in school and elsewhere, commercial sexual exploitation, and trafficking of girls and women. There proposition captures most of the elements of Gender Based Violence as it applies to the Sierra Leonean context where men still take the dominant role and perpetuate the outlined violence against women and female under their guidance. In 1995, the U.N. expanded the definition to include: violations of the rights of women in situations of armed conflict, including systematic rape, sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy; forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coerced or forced use of contraceptives; and prenatal sex selection and female infanticide It further recognized the particular vulnerabilities of women belonging to minorities: the elderly and the displaced; indigenous, refugee, and migrant communities; women living in impoverished rural or remote areas, or in detention. 'Gender-based violence' and 'violence against women' are terms that are often used interchangeably as most gender-based violence is inflicted by men on women and girls. However, it is important to retain the 'gender-based' aspect of the concept as this highlights the fact that violence against women is an expression of power inequalities between women and men.