Violence against womenWhy did not stop till now? [Archives:2005/851/Culture]

By Eshraq Al-Bodigi
[email protected]
For Yemen Times
In spite of the existence of so many studies and statistics of the violence against women around the world, and in spite of it's high and scary rates which translate the suffering of women everywhere, a large number of victims are due to the hostility of men, whether directly or indirectly. There are no actual acts against this awful ghost and catastrophic condition.

Women don't deny the latest steps of some national and international organizations and institutions towards solvings this case such as DAW, OXFAM, UNIFAM, SOUL, WNC, ECOSOC, WAVO, etc; but the steps that were supposed to fight for the women's freedom, release them from subordination of men and unjust laws didn't succeed at all.

It is merely a group of words and slogans, where the whole subject seems to hold talks, conferences, and conventions that can't actually preserve the world's women till this moment.

As most studies and surveys which done since latest years show, many people know that women were suffering different kinds of violence including, deprivation in learning, psychology pressure, complete domination, using force in all aspects in life even in marriage and voicing opinions, violent slaps or thrashes, circumcision, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. These kinds of injustice and vehemence are not the only aspects of misery but there are more that develop directly with the development of the place and period. For example, today if there is a successful woman in any scientific or social field, men cannot accept this idea or comprehend that the successful woman is a struggler. However, some men start to fight this woman and invent rumors saying that the woman is selling herself and her body. Here, we notice that violence has taken another shape to attack women even if they are successful in their society. This kind of violence can be found in Arab and Islamic societies more than others, due to the importance of women honor.

Without any exaggeration, I can say this kind of behavior has become just like a Flu virus, which changes its shape and defensive procedures. When the body of the human being gets the good resistance against the previous virus, the new shape of Flu virus can easily attack the same body and causes influenza.

In some societies and till this day, women have no rights to amuse themselves and they cannot find such a place to do their sports, enjoy their activities or entertainment. Sometimes, there are such places but it is so limited or private and costs a lot.

Nevertheless, today some kind of violence against women have taken a wide circle, and at this point, the question is; where does violence get its power?

The power of violence against women comes from the weakness of women themselves. Moreover, because women are physically a weak creature and have not enough power for self-defense, many disgusting of kinds of violence are exploding, especially slaps, thrashes, sexual harassment and sexual assault. However, if we are more careful, we will notice that physical violence depends on the body's weakness of the woman, and the other kind of violence depends on the social position of woman in her society and her unawareness of her rights.

Going back to the social position of men in society, some societies make men more powerful and give him the keys of command, so that he is able to practice all types of violence against those sensitive creatures, which still tolerate this pressure in spite of their weakness.

In addition to that, the deprivation of women's rights like deprivation of education, health, and working in the place of making decisions makes men more influential and aggressive to practice extreme violence that we are unable stop even after thousands of years. Going further into the topic, we found that a woman does not face whole aspects of aggression as much as other women that depend on the social environment of the woman herself.

All reasons that cause this violence resemble the culture of the society or are the results of moving away from heavenly religions, which keeps women rights and saves her dignity.

Now, the important question is, where does violence go. Can we stop it?

Violence that is coming from men against women rushes to enslave women and keep them away from independence.

Since we are determined to get rid of violence of men against women, women have to be more intrepidity and conscious of their rights and get ready to pull out their rights from everybody around them. They should stop weeping and start to say; it is my right to do this and get this and live like this.

The only way to protect women is to enact some laws to help women and save their rights. Moreover, it is unavoidable to start learning their rights with the help of the national and international institutions and organizations that care about women's affairs and resist violence against women around the world.
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