Violence Against Women

Violence against women is the type of the violence which is characterized with the physical, sexual and psychological abuse of a person on the basis of her gender. The history of violence against women is very long and dramatic. For more than two thousand years women did not have any rights and had only the limited functions like household duties and giving birth to children.

Moreover, women have always been treated negatively by men because the latter treated them like simple things but not like the equal human beings. Women abuse is also a part of the culture of some nations.

In Asia and Muslim countries women still do not possess the whole set of rights owned by men and women abuse is still popular there. If a woman in Africa or Asia does something disrespectful, she can be killed easily and the husband will not be punished for it. The most common type of violence against women is the marriage without the agreement of a woman to it. Every year thousands of hundreds women get married in such a way ruining their lives. Speaking about the Western civilization, violence against women has never been a part of the culture. Today, there are such forms of women abuse: domestic violence, cultural violence, violence caused by the activity of the governmental forces and military conflicts. Evidently, domestic violence is extremely common all over the world and very seldom women are protected by someone in such cases.

Violence against women is still an important and stressful problem in the world, because women are still treated with prejudice at work and at home. Domestic violence has been acknowledged to be a rapidly growing concern all over the world during the last 20 years, and as a result, countries around the world are working on developing strategies to stop the violence and provide more mechanisms to protect women, men, and children who are battered and abused every day. Without a shadow of the doubt, domestic violence has an adverse effect on society, and before it is too late, some actions should be taken into matters. Domestic violence has many forms, including sexual abuse, physical violence, mental abuse, intimidation and frightening, or threats of violence.  To my mind, the simple truth is that people abuse because they can get away with it. In most cultures, men have more power than women, in some cultures and religions, age grants you power. And of course, if there is an imbalance in the power distribution is sure to come.

Domestic violence has recently driven a lot of attention from various women organizations who are willing to protect the wives that are being beaten and psychologically abused by their husbands. The topic of family or domestic abuse has even become a primary focus of modern feminism, particularly regarding violence against women. However, for too long, domestic violence has been an only women’s issue, as women have always been considered to be weaker and more vulnerable than men. But domestic violence should not be viewed as a female issue only, because if in 2002 more than three-fourths of spouse violence homicide victims were female nowadays the number of intimate partner homicides of men is much sharper. Domestic violence occurs in all cultures and countries, to people of all races, ethnicities, and religions. Both men and women experience domestic violence and even occurs in same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. It’s been proven by statistics that the domestic abuse appears on the same level in well developed and wealthy countries as well as in poor and less developed regions of the world. Witnessing the domestic violence at home has a great effect on children. When they see or hear an abusive dialog or witness the actual act of physical abuse, they experience the aftermath and sensation that the young soul is not ready to suffer. Even when the parents believe the children are unaware of what is happening, the children can often have detailed information about the events. Where the wife/partner is being abused, the children are also likely to be abusing themselves. This applies first of all to the emotional abuse where the child’s self-esteem is battered by being shouted at, being called names or being told that he/she is not good enough. Quite apart from possible physical involvement or direct physical abuse, these mental actions have a harmful, deep and often long-lasting effect on the children. Many children who witness the abuse of their mothers, fathers or other family members start themselves demonstrate significant behavioral and mental problems such as fear, excessive crying, low self-esteem, and nervousness. It has been proven that boys who observe acts of domestic violence at home during their young age are more likely to beat their female partners as adults than boys raised in nonviolent homes. The way the child is affected depends on the individual child, his/her age, and gender, how much they are involved in the abuse and how strong his/her personality is. Finding the reasons or causes of domestic violence is rather tricky. There is never one reason for domestic violence, but it usually begins with one person needing to control another person. It starts with verbal insults then over time escalates into physical violence. Abusers are usually the people who feel the need to control because of low self-esteem, difficulties in managing anger, dissatisfaction with the life or career, extreme jealousy, and other strong emotions. But no matter what the reason for the beginning of the abuse is, domestic violence is an inappropriate violation of the human rights that cannot stay unnoticed.

Before we can stop the domestic abuse, it is essential to understand just what domestic violence is and what it is not. Domestic violence is not about love and one of the partners having problems; it is simply about the imbalance of power and control. There are no excuses for the abuser, and one should not try looking for some, because one should feel bad for a person who attempts to control another through threats, actual use of physical violence, physical attack, and verbal or mental abuse. To create peace in our communities, we need to change the social norms and regulations that allow domestic violence to exist in the modern world simply. Domestic violence happens because we let it happen and it will stop right when we say it must stop.

Every sector of society is affected by the domestic violence because each family is a little individual cell of a social body and only if all the cells are functioning right the body can flourish. I think we all should try to find the solution to this “deadly” path that the domestic abuse is taking and each person has a critical role to play in doing so.

TEAM MEMBERS: ANUSHA JOMON, GIGIMOL JOSEPH AND ROMILA MAMMEN

COLLEGE: JESUS AND MARY COLLEGE

COURSE: B.COM (HONS.) 3RD YEAR