Justice for her?
Without a legislation to provide women a safe haven, nations fail to protect women especially when living in a time where gender-based violence is more widely disapproved.
By Jedidiah Hu
Through the persistence and the unwavering fervor from anti-violence feminists and activists, society has inched its way down from one that views patriarchy as the norm. From third world countries to modern and civilized cultures, many stepped up to defend and fight for one of the most universal yet least recognized human rights: women’s rights. Though the majority may have chosen to ignore and or do little against something as degrading and arbitrary as exploiting women’s rights, there has been many leaders in the past couple decades that rose to reform, improve, and inspire populations to move on past such misogyny. Despite the respectable actions of those striving to work against gender-based violence, it is still a problem that exists prevalently even in modern nations such as the United States. This is even more so a problem in other countries that lack the minimal laws to protect women such as Russia.
As one of the most pressing yet least recognized issues in today’s world, violence against women is often ignored and the voices of those women affected are underrepresented. Even in the United States, behind closed doors of seemingly happy couples, there may be domestic violence against women. In well-developed nations such as the United States where anti-sexist, anti-violence, and anti-racist leaders endeavor to make the world a better place, violence against women still exists. This should not be the case especially when a world of gender-equality is being pursued.
Maybe some men do not see it as gender-based violence and believe that is how it should be. However what the United Nations considers violence against women is not limited to any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. In which case, specific actions include, but is not limited to marital rape, incest, murder, assault, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and human trafficking. With these specifics, men need to take responsibility and move away from advocating such violence against their intimate female counterparts.
So why would men, as an intimate partner, inflict any form of gender-based abuse on their significant other? The answer may lie within the roots of how there are still remnants of sexism and misogyny in society that uphold males as the dominant figure in every situation. According to the World Health Organization, low education, a history of child maltreatment, exposure to domestic violence against their mothers, harmful use of alcohol, unequal gender norms including attitudes accepting of violence, and a sense of entitlement over women are some of the factors that increase the likelihood of men inflicting gender-based violence. On the other hand, low education, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, abuse during childhood, and attitudes accepting violence, male privilege, and women’s subordinate status are some of the factors and increase the likelihood of women accepting and experiencing intimate partner violence.
Persistent activists and feminists have fought against violence and sexism and have little by little led this world into a more peaceful state of equality. Despite living in such a peaceful time female victims of domestic violence go left unheard and are continually abused. On a global scale, the most common form of violence experienced by women is actually this physical violence perpetrated by their significant other. As surprising as it may be, up to about 70 percent of female murder victims were killed by their intimate partners. That same percentage of women in the United States have also experienced sexual and physical violence in their lifetime with a majority coming from husbands, intimate partners, or from someone they personally know.
If that was not enough, there are countries out there that do not even have any form of defined legislation on domestic violence. Countries within Africa such as Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Republic of Congo and within the Middle East countries such as Iraq, Iran, Myanmar, and Qatar do not see gender-based violence as an issue big enough to set up a legislation against it. How then can women in such nations protect themselves let alone seek outside help for their situation and abuse from men, their husbands, their intimate partners, and or from someone they know? All of those men who have been accused of gender-based violence against women in this case would easily evade justice. Without a properly defined framework of dealing with something as horrendous as this, nations will continually allow this type of crime to run rampant.
Now with a government that attempts to provide a safe haven for women in the United States, there still seems to be some form of abuse towards women hidden behind the scene. According to Kimberle Crenshaw from her work “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color”, there are millions of immigrant women residing in America that are especially vulnerable when they have to depend on their husbands for information regarding their legal status. Threats of deportation by their husbands light up fear within these women and are intimidated by such threats. On a global scale, what happens in the United States is a small case. Other nations do not even have laws against domestic abuse especially from the countries of Africa and the Middle East. Kimberle Crenshaw’s concept of intersectional subordination explains that feminists and activists of the “West” need to fight for the rights of women not just in their countries but for other countries that face this issue as well. Together the freedom of women from gender-based violence needs to be well addressed and not just ignored.
Taking down a patriarchal society and turning it into a world where gender-based violence and misogyny cease to exist would be a dream come true for millions of women seeking help against such injustice. Though it will not be an easy task, but united, tackling down this pressing issue slowly but persistently would be key to emancipating women from all parts of the globe.
