Syria, Afghanistan worst places for women

Syria and Afghanistan are the worst places to be a woman, according to the 2018 Women, Peace and Security Index.

The index is put together by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.

The United States came in at No. 22. The index measured women’s “well being and empowerment” in 153 countries and ranked the nations on peace, security and women’s inclusion.

The measures included years of schooling, number of female lawmakers, employment, legal and other discrimination, war, intimate partner violence and cellphone use.

The two conflict-ridden Middle Eastern countries of Syria and Afghanistan were at the bottom of the list.

Iceland was ranked as the best country in which to be a woman.

The civil war raging in Syria since 2011 shows no sign of abating. Last month, the BBC reported that Syrian women were being sexually exploited in return for humanitarian aid.

In Afghanistan, where women were stripped of their rights by the Taliban

government between 1996 and 2001, gender-based violence is rampant, and many women die in childbirth.