ABSTRACT
Culture, custom, religion, or laws in many countries prohibit women from owning or inheriting land, receiving an education or appropriate health care, being employed or earning a fair wage, receiving information or assistance concerning their sexual and reproductive rights, or generally receiving the same rights as men in their community (Mertens et al. 2007). Women and girls, who differ physically or mentally from other females in their communities, form a subgroup that experiences this same discrimination and more as negative stereotypes about their “different-ness” along with barriers created by inaccessible environments harmfully change their “difference” into a “disability.” Deprived of the equal rights and equal status of men because of being born female, women with a physical or mental “disability” are doubly discriminated against because of society’s crippling attitudes.
