Violence Against Women—When Will the tragedy End?

Lava Khaled

Despite the fact that all religions and sects profess to believe in compassion for all people, especially for those who are, like women, considered to be disadvantaged by society, it has proven impossible to change the mindset many religious groups continue to hold that considers women to be less than men.  Despite the advanced development of human society in the present age, we continue to witness violence against women in a variety of forms. Violence against women attracts the attention of people from all sectors of society, and yet no one has moved to stop it. Violence against women is not confined to specific groups or targets, but rather occurs in all cultures and religious groups, from developed countries to the third world.

 According to Amnesty International, violence against women is a stain on the forehead of humanity, the product of a narrow-minded social ethos which is deeply out of place in the modern age. As they report, at least one out of every three women on earth will face some kind of gendered violence or oppression over the course of her lifetime. Over 60 million female babies are voluntarily aborted each year, since women are often reluctant to bring female children into the world to face the same challenges that have damaged the mothers. Each year, over a million women are raped by family, friends, bosses, co-workers, or military personnel.

Some experts explain violence against women as a result of the inequality of strength between men and women and the inequality between their respective accesses to force. However, violence against women goes far beyond the physical, extending to all kinds of discrimination, oppression, insult, and aggression, both direct and indirect. Thus, we must look for other explanations.

Why Violence Against Women?

If men come to understand that equality is a right for everyone, they will no longer practice violence against women. A new mindset must arise to stand against the status quo that prevents women from fulfilling their normal, equal roles. The continuation of this status quo and its terrible repercussions will introduce nothing but more suffering and inequality into the structure of society.

We can try to enumerate the basic causes of violence against women as a place to begin thinking about its abolition. The first cause is the women who accept the insults of men and relinquish their dignity, and then remain silent in the face of these inhuman acts.  The next cause has to do with the mindset held by many men, who believe that women are weak and unprepared for many things in life. This mindset, critical to the oppression of women in daily life, is facilitated by established social and cultural traditions, which have themselves played a large part in establishing damaging ideas about the inferiority of women. It is clear to everyone now that we are still living in a narrow-minded society that insists on the inferiority of women. This mindset is the cause of disharmony in many families, and these small family crises often result in an increase in violence against women, who are often considered responsible for the crises in the first place. The third reason is ignorance: on one hand, men are ignorant about the world of women and how to relate to them, which results in disrespect for her independent ideas, identity, and point of view, and on the other, both women and men are ignorant of about the rights and duties of women, which exposes them to violence at the hands of men. This dual ignorance is a major cause of violence against women. The fourth cause of violence against women is the differences in class and education that often exist between men and women and between husbands and wives. Within the family, this inequality usually fosters violence by the stronger (usually the man) on the weaker (usually the women and children). When the women happens to have a higher class or educational level than the man it often inspires  more violence, as the situation differs from the social norm and makes the man feel uneasy.

Kinds of Violence

Violence against women is not confined to Arabic or Islamic societies. Women in both the East and the West are oppressed by the narrow-minded mindset that considers women to be less than men. Many assert that women who work, study in universities, and leave the house whenever they wish are truly free, and shouldn't ask for anything else.  However, as long as the mindset of inequality persists, women have a battle to fight. Violence against women comes in many different forms, both physical and psychological. Physical violence can include beating, raping, burning, and killing, all exacerbated by the fact that women are often denied alimony. Psychological violence can include insults and threats, which prevent women from feeling safe and maintaining their dignity as human beings. Women are also often prevented from taking up an equal role in the workplace, which further disturbs the balance between men and women. Men have many methods of inflicting violence on women, and women have few methods of resisting it, especially as the family is often the primary arena for violence against women.

Surveys record that 20-50% of women worldwide are beaten even before marriage. Overall, 33% have been slapped, 16% beaten with a stick or belt, and 9% threatened with a knife, all by their husbands. 52% have been exposed to psychological violence, such as threat or insult, likewise by their husbands. These situations often reach crisis points which require the women to seek physical or psychological medical help. According to an American survey, 22-35% of women have gone to the emergency room because of violence at the hands of their husbands.

Social violence is another problem for women. This kind of violence results from the same narrow-minded mindset that sees women as inferior. Women are often subject to verbal violence at home or on the street, and are also often exploited in the workplace. In addition to this kind of social violence, women are victims of political violence as well. In Arab and Islamic societies, most women are still forbidden from most political rights such as the right to vote or hold office. Such is the situation of Kurdish women in Syria, who are prevented from attaining citizenship and thus barred from the political sphere.

The Results of Violence

Perhaps the worst result of violence against women is that it makes women feel weak and unconfident in their independent abilities, and thus prevents her from participating fully in society.  Violated women also lose their ability to bring up the children who will inherit the same problems that have plagued their parents. Violence can also adversely affect women's psychological health, as they become isolated, hostile, and depressed. 

The best solution to the problem of violence against women is to change the narrow-minded male mentality that considers women to be inferior. In general, society should consider women as human beings with independent, vital, and effective personalities and identities, as well as rights and duties of their own. The media is the most important tool we have for changing the way women are viewed in our societies. The media is responsible for instilling mercy and peace as the cornerstone of all private and public relationships, as well as for combating the stereotypical image of women as inferior to men. The media is critical to the destruction of violence against women: violence against women cannot be ended without the political will of the public and a commitment on local, regional, national, and global levels to make the discussion of women's issues a priority. The end of violence against women will require specific legislation and international plans; these must set out and organize resources sufficient to deal with the problem of violence against women on a high level and punish everyone who commits a violent crime against a woman. Without these efforts, violence against women will become ordinary in a society which is considered the first to have come up with the idea that women are inferior to men.   

  Translated by: Susanna Ferguson