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International columnist, political analyst and senior journalist Ahmed Mohiuddin Siddiqui’s articles are published across Asia, Africa and Europe. He writes for The Moroccan Times, The Tunis Times, India Tomorrow, Kohram News, The Etemaad Urdu Daily and for news papers published from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. You can follow him on Twitter at: @journopolana[/symple_box]
In modern times, one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime—a pandemic that has assumed global proportions. Even entire societies have chosen to commit violence against women. In the words of United Nations Women: ‘Violence is not inevitable. It can be prevented. But it’s not as straightforward as eradicating a virus. There is no vaccine, medication or cure. And there is no one single reason for why it happens.
As such, prevention strategies should be holistic, with multiple interventions undertaken in parallel in order to have long-lasting and permanent effects. Many sectors, actors and stakeholders need to be engaged. More evidence is emerging on what interventions work to prevent violence—from community mobilization to change social norms, to comprehensive school interventions targeting staff and pupils, to economic empowerment and income supplements coupled with gender equality training according to the United Nations Women.
Prevention is the 2015 theme of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25th November and of the UNiTE to End Violence against Women Campaign’s 16 days call for action. This year, at the official commemoration at UN Headquarters in New York, the first UN Framework on Preventing Violence against Women will be launched and discussed (ECOSOC Chamber; 10 a.m.–12 noon). This document stems from the collaboration of seven UN entities: UN Women, ILO, OHCHR, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA and WHO. The framework develops a common understanding for the UN System, policymakers and other stakeholders on preventing violence against women and provides a theory of change to underpin action.
From 25th November through 10th December, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence aim to raise public awareness and mobilizing people everywhere to bring about change. This year, the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign invites people to “Orange the world,” using the colour designated by the UNiTE campaign to symbolize a brighter future without violence. Organize events to orange streets, schools and landmarks!
This year the following events have been included: a benefit concert for the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women set against an orange stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, and the lighting of the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Orange events are planned in more than 70 countries around the world ahead of and throughout the 16 days. They will include the orange lighting of major landmarks like Niagara Falls (Canada/USA), the European Commission building (Belgium) and the Council of Europe building (France), the archeological ruins at Petra (Jordan), the Presidential Palace in Brasilia (Brazil), and the Palais de Justice (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Other events planned range from the ‘oranging’ of bus stops in Timor-Leste, to marathons in Venezuela, to spontaneous orange flash mobs in Indonesia.’
Following is the statement by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women:
‘‘Across the world, violence against women and girls remains one of the most serious—and the most tolerated—human rights violations, both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality and discrimination.
Its continued presence is one of the clearest markers of societies out of balance and we are determined to change that.
On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women we say again:
It is not acceptable.
It is not inevitable.
It can be prevented.
Although there is no single solution to such a complex problem, there is growing evidence of the range of actions that can stop violence before it happens, especially if they are implemented in parallel.
Further research currently underway will lead to more definitive strategies and interventions to prevent violence.
We believe that, through concerted action by everyone involved, from governments to individuals, we can tackle the unequal power relations and structures between men and women and highlight the necessary attitudinal, practice and institutional changes.
Imagine how different the world would be for girls growing up now if we could prevent early marriage, female genital mutilation, the turning of a blind eye to domestic violence, abusive text messages, the impunity of rapists, the enslavement of women in conflict areas, the killing of women human rights defenders, or the hostility of police stations or courtrooms to women’s testimony of violence experienced.
We have made progress in improving the laws that distinguish these acts and others as ones of violence and invasion of human rights. Some 125 countries have laws against sexual harassment, 119 have laws against domestic violence, but only 52 countries have laws on marital rape.
We know that leaders, whether CEOs, Prime Ministers, or teachers, can set the tone for zero tolerance to violence.
Community mobilization, group interventions for both women and men, educational programmes and empowerment of women are some of the interventions that have impact, when they are put together with other legal, behavioural and social changes.
For example, in Uganda, engaging communities in discussion of unequal power relations between men and women dropped rates of physical violence by men against their partners by half.
In Myanmar, provision of legal aid services for rural women is improving access to justice and the training of even a small group of male leaders has been identified as contributing to a change of behaviour in some 40 per cent of those in the target communities.
We are doing pre-deployment training for peacekeepers to be more gender sensitive and to better protect civilian populations in conflict areas.
And in the United States, urban police officers trained to recognize the warning signs of intimate partner violence, are making some progress in reducing the numbers of murdered women.
As we launch the Orange the World Campaign today, we already know that tuk-tuk drivers in Cambodia, soccer stars in Turkey, police officers in Albania, school children in South Africa and Pakistan, and hundreds of thousands of others around the world, are all in their own way taking a stand.
We now have, for the first time, explicit targets to eliminate violence against women in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These demand accelerated action.
When more than 70 world leaders took the podium in New York at the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment on 27th September 2015, the majority named ending violence against women and girls as a priority for action.
It is indeed a priority.
I believe that if we all work together: governments, civil society organizations, the UN system, businesses, schools, and individuals mobilizing through new solidarity movements, we will eventually achieve a more equal world—a Planet 50-50—where women and girls can and will live free from violence.’’
As a journalist, I would like to ask the society in general: Are we doing our bit to eliminate violence against women? I am afraid, we are not doing enough! Women have been victims of violence since times immemorial. According to the epic Mahabharata, Draupadi, wife of the 5-Pandava brothers was disrobed in the royal court! As result of the humiliation suffered, Draupadi did not tie her hair for 13 years! Has man evolved in modern times? Ask J. Jayalalitha, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state in India. When Jaya was in the opposition in the Legislative Assembly, her saree was pulled in the august house!
In August 2015, a policeman in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir sat in the lap of the female special police officer. The clip was recorded and uploaded on the internet. It became viral and the policeman was suspended. The question is: If a female police officer can be a victim of sexual violence in the police station, how safe is the common woman on the street?
Picture Courtesy: India.com.
There is a Minister in the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet –Gen. V. K Singh, who called journalists as ‘presstitutes’ to equate them with prostitutes. If the media can be abused by an enlightened army man and a minister, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Let’s move to the West. On the 3rd November, 2015, a man was arrested in Texas for aggravated assault of his girl friend. Robinson Pinilla Bolivar was accused of assaulting his girl friend after she refused to smell his armpit! So much for the human rights and emancipation of women in the West!!
Here comes the shocker: The objectification of women in the free world and in the times of the feminists has assumed alarming proportions. The World’s 1st Vaginal Beauty Pageant was held by former Attorney-turned-Sex-Toy-manufacturer Brian Sloan in Germany this month. The girl with the best vagina selected by online voters won a $5,000 prize. Isn’t the concept of ‘inner beauty’ being stretched too far? There were two other prizes too. More details follow in my next column. The Sexual Wellness industry’s US revenues are estimated at $15billion with a projected growth to $52billion by 2020.
All mothers and fathers must pledge to bring up their boys in a gender bias free manner. If a boy is taught to respect his mother and sister, then violence against women will be eliminated. As a grown up adult, he will respect all women he comes across in life! There is a need for women’s ‘Retrieval from the margin to the centre’, which is the focus of my doctoral research on feminist literary discourse. I hope that it sees the light of the day soon.
