Femicide: A Hate Crime
Let’s reveal the untold and bitter truths behind the scenes.
Around the world, the homicide of 87.000 women and girls was intentional in 2017, according to a study. The reasons for femicide can be several, but the leading cause is mostly seen as the anger management issues of men. However, some possible actions can prevent femicide from happening.
The term femicide can be explained within the scope of hate crime. According to the dictionary definition of hate crime, “a crime, usually violent, motivated by prejudice or intolerance toward an individual’s national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
Similarly, femicide can be defined as “the intentional murder of women because they are women, but broader definitions include any killing of women or girls.” To put it another way, when a crime is committed against a woman or group of women, these crimes are referred to as femicide. Because of this common ground, at its core, femicide is a hate crime.
There are a great variety of reasons for femicides. However, according to research, the main motive for femicide is mostly indicated as male’s inadequacy in anger management and acting on the claim that strong is right.
As an example, a 27-year-old woman was brutally killed in Turkey by her boyfriend, and the body of the missing young woman was found in the depths of a forest a few days later. While looking at the surveillance cameras, the police caught the murderer. After throwing him into a jail cell and a series of investigations, the murderer confessed the bloody reason, “I did it in a sudden outburst of anger.”
The way he killed that poor girl was revealed in his subsequent confession. At first, he tried to burn her body. When his attempt failed, he filled a bin with concrete and put her in. Now tell me, what is behind such violent behavior other than hate in essence?
This case in Turkey is just one illustration. But, we are witnessing femicide every single day on various platforms such as social media and other sources of news, even if we have not been a witness to someone who has been murdered in front of us. This situation shows us that it is hard not to be affected.
For instance, I can’t help but think, what if I am the next one? Like most women out there, I’m living with this fear. Because my murderer could be anyone, someone I know because I refused, or someone on the street because I was in the wrong place and time.
However, there is no such place or time called wrong. These are just cheap excuses mostly to make a distraction in the perception. There is one more way to mislead the perception, and that is to show femicides as a singular event rather than as a part of a broader violence pattern. In a way, the media covers up the fact that there is a homicide.
To end the cycle of chronic excuses, the media should stop covering everything up and start referring to femicides as hate crimes or violence against women. This minor difference in the presentation of the news can trigger policy change. According to WHO, making changes in the laws that permit these kinds of crimes could be the first step in order to mitigate the fear and violence. In Belgium, for example, a new proposed law calls for a life sentence for those who are violent towards their female partners. This proposal for change is a starting point for other countries, but it is a short-term solution.
Educating society on the meaning of feminism and raising awareness about feminism is a better and longer-term solution to minimize gender inequality. The feminist approach states that progression in gender equality will decrease femicide and male dominance. In this way, violence will no longer be used as a tool by men to have total control over women. Therefore, the claim that strong is right will go down in history.
In conclusion, a crime motivated by hostility towards someone or a group is defined as a hate crime. Femicide is not different than that. Although male aggression can be seen as the cause of most femicides, there isn’t a thing that can justify violence against women or hate crimes. Therefore, both societies and governments must take the responsibility of preventing women from being murdered. Governments should apply more specific preventive and punitive laws. We, as a part of society, should talk about feminism to fight for equal rights and raise the issue of femicide so that no woman ever has to live with the fear of being murdered again.
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