Abuse Victim Comes Forth with Her Past

Nations are working hard to prevent domestic violence. There are a myriad of organizations, hotlines, and support groups available to those that are victims of this abuse. There are also many state and federal laws and regulations that have been created to aid women. With all of that said, there is still the question of how those apart from these supporting institutions see and treat domestic abuse victims.

It is encouraged for women to leave these awful situations, but how can we keep encouraging this, in order for these victims to lead better lives, when there is still discrimination and ignorance that lies within our society? Recently in American news, a story surfaced of a teacher in San Diego who was
recently fired for the “crime” of being a domestic abuse victim. Her abusive husband, who was at the time under a retraining order, had visited her school in January, which prompted a lockdown of the premises. The teacher came forth with her history of abuse and harassment, with unsavory results. The incident that occurred in January of 2013 resulted in the discontinuation of her contract in April. It was claimed by the school board that her presence at the school put the safety of her students in jeopardy.

The teacher Carie Charlesworth has since taken legal action, which is now getting the attention of the state of California as well as the nation. There is the question of the legality of her firing. There is currently a law going up before the state of California to protect domestic abuse survivors from losing their jobs, when their personal life becomes apparent to their employer. There is the feeling that these abuse survivors are being further victimized for something they are unable to prevent. How are we to promote a life after abuse, and encourage women in bad situations to leave, when they are fearful of coming forth about their mistreatment?

It is important not only in the United States, but also worldwide, that women are never made to feel less of a person for being victims of abuse. Those who leave abusive relationships should not be mistreated more.  We must be supportive as a society in aiding those back to a normal state of life, rather than making an unstable post-abusive situation even worse with the loss of employment.

We are already seeing an increasing amount of violence against women in the mainstream media. It is not isolated to newspapers and online resources, but we are also seeing it in forms of entertainment as well. Movies, video games, and music are all ways in which this serious issue is slowly numbing the affect on our society. 

As we are trying to battle the negative influence of violence against women, we must never lose focus of those who are victims. It’s time to not only focus on those committing the crime, and the environment that influenced it, but to focus on those who live with these memories and fears every day.

By Megan Bird


http://www.10news.com/news/state-weighs-bill-to-protect-domestic-violencesurvivors-from-losing-jobs-061413
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jun/14/school-terminates-teacherdomestic-violence-victim/
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/06/13/2148721/school-fires-teacherdomestic-abuse/?mobile=nc

BORN BEHIND BARS

Gloria Estefan, American singer, writer and actress once said “motherhood is… difficult and…rewarding”. The transformation of a woman into a mother is an evolutionary happening which makes her experience the joys of selfless love and constant devotion towards her child. Even though pregnancy is a normal biological process yet both pre-natal as well as post-natal care is important. It is easy to talk about efforts that can be taken to ensure safe delivery in normal situations but is it equally possible in case of a woman who has been convicted of a crime and is serving jail sentence?

The negative impacts that incarceration can have during those 9 months and while delivery are way beyond what we can understand or perceive. The torture these women are subjected to when they are behind bars corroborates State’s inability (whether consciously or unconsciously) to safeguard them when they are the most vulnerable. An example of this is the exposure of horrifying practice of forced abortion by administering abortion shots, torture or very hard labor in North Korean prison in 2002 which shocked everybody. If the baby was born alive it was either killed by the authorities or the inmates were forced to ‘get rid of it’.

The situation is no better even in some of the most advanced democracies of the world who take pride in their codes and constitution based on ‘equality for all’ principle. In United States, a woman who goes behind bars is often shackled in chains and handcuffs even when she is pregnant. Several incidents have been reported where expecting mothers serving sentences in U.S. prisons were handcuffed and chained even during the labor pains. In 2008 a lawsuit was filed by Eva M Hightower, an inmate at the Knox County Detention Facility against Knox County and Sheriff's Office employees for medical negligence and medical malpractice. Hightower alleged that despite repeated calls for help and assistance she was forced to give birth alone in the jail where the baby tumbled on the floor as the umbilical cord severed while falling into the pool of blood and suffered bruises.

Apart from this, issues relating to health and hygiene, medication, substance abuse, overcrowding, nutrition and family support always exist. These women are already victims of shame, helplessness, passivity and violation of basic human rights and such traumatization within the walls of the prison together with the mental stress of providing a healthy lifestyle to their newborns makes life increasingly difficult.

 

It is difficult to summarize the problems faced by incarcerated mothers in prisons around the world because the state of affairs varies from one country to another. However, some common problems which are commonly encountered by expecting mothers serving imprisonment are:-

1. Shackling of women prevents their mobility which can be frustrating. It also increases the risk of injuring the fetus.
2. Limited access to medical facilities increases the possibilities of still births and miscarriages
3. In many countries overcrowding of prisons makes life difficult as there is lack of privacy.
4. These women become social outcasts and all contacts with family network are severed.
5. Medical checkups by professional gynecologists are not done on a regular basis.
6. There is greater risk of being sexually abused by the male prison staff.

This is just a fraction of the actual problems. The damaging effects prison life can have on expecting mothers is beyond estimation. Even if the child is born, they are separated from their mothers leaving both the child and the mother to carry on living a life of agony and anguish. Complications and dilemmas prevail even after the term of imprisonment is over as social re-integration becomes questionable.

Painful childbirth was a punishment given to Eve for disobeying God’s will- “To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16) But it is also true that the miracle of childbirth makes her forget and bypass the pain she had to go through. “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” (John 16:21) If God inflicted pain upon woman while giving birth to a new being, he also gave her the confidence, audacity and courage to go through this. It would be inhumane if a woman who is harboring a life in her womb is tortured and subjected to ill-treatment.

What can we do? The question is simple but at the same time complex and the problem has been there for centuries yet overlooked. ‘Security’ is the fundamental need of expecting mothers in prisons and it should be made available. They should feel secure about themselves and about their child. Education and counseling can also help them to some extent. Vocational and job training if made available, they can be self-sufficient once they are released. Prison reforms are vital but the need of the hour is to have a movement, a ‘movement for incarcerated mothers’ where the individuals, the associations and organisations and the state should come together to develop a network of community-based services for pregnant women in prison to help them re-build their lives.

Source: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/05/09/unchain-my-heart-shackling-pregnant-women-in-prison-needs-to-stop

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/07/06/giving-birth-chains-the-shackling-incarcerated-women-during-labor-and-delivery

http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/0104hightowercomplaint.pdf

My Brother, My Husband, My Father. My Tormentor, My Captor, My Killer

Every day, girls are born into our world. Sadly, simply because of their gender, these girls will be more likely to face violence and abuse throughout their lives. In many cases, they will also face premature death at the hands of their abusers.

Around the world, women suffer a disproportionate burden of violence for no reason other than having been born female. Contrary to popular belief, violence against women is not a phenomenon that affects girls and women who put themselves at risk by willingly entering dangerous situations. No, the unfortunate reality is that women experience the most violence at home.

Worldwide, women are abused every day, every second. The number one perpetrators of such abuses are not usually strangers they cross paths with on the street. They are not always that man who they met at the bar. Nor are they usually the militiamen who stumble upon women who leave their camps to fetch water from the nearest well. No, in reality, those abusing women tend to be a member of the woman’s own family or someone who they know.

As frightening as it is, women around the world are constantly sleeping under the same roof as the person who abuses them or who might put them at risk.

A report by Amnesty International explains that seventy percent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners. In Kenya, one woman a week becomes part of this grim statistic. In Zambia, five women a week follow the same fate.  In Bangladesh, half of all murders of women are by their partners. Even more alarming, in South Africa, about one woman is killed by her husband or boyfriend every six hours.

Not all skirmishes end up in death. According to the World Health Organization, about fifty percent of women in Tanzania and seventy-one percent of women in Ethiopia’s rural areas reported beatings or other forms of violence by husbands or other intimate partners.

Developed countries have acted to reduce the impact and the incidence of violence against women. Unfortunately, violence against women remains a global problem. In the United States, a woman is battered by her husband or partner every 15 seconds. That boils down to about four battered women in the time it took me to write this paragraph. In New Zealand, twenty percent of women have reported being hit or abused by their male partner. In the United Kingdom, approximately two women are killed every week by their partners.

There is also a story of women who never see the light of life due to female female foeticide. As part of this practice, female fetuses are intentionally killed by their own parents before or right after being born. In India, for example, an estimated 35 to 40 million girls and women are missing from the Indian population as a result of gender-selective abortion. As a consequence of pre-natal sex determination, female fetuses are selectively aborted in order to avoid the birth of girls.

The list describing the forms of violence against women is endless. Women not only are beaten and killed. They are also forced into marriage, they suffer dowry-related violence, marital rape, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, trafficking and forced prostitution.

Why is it that women face such violence and hardships in our world? And why is it that their own family members are the ones perpetrating these acts?

The reason is simple: women are abused because cultural norms around the world put them in subservient positions in relation to their husbands and other males.  The reality is that violence against women is so deeply embedded in cultures around the world that millions of women across the globe consider it a way of life.  In Pakistan, for example, forty-two percent of women accept violence as part of their fate, and thirty-three percent of Pakistani women feel too helpless to stand up to violence.

Culture in many countries condones violence against women. This is especially true in the case of married women who practically become the property of their husbands. Across Asia and Africa, the right of a husband to beat or physically intimidate his wife is a deeply held conviction. In other societies, such as North America, where women seem to enjoy a better status, a certain amount of violence against women is somewhat condoned or at least tolerated.

Culture-based violence against women not only manifests itself in the form of partner violence. Every year, in areas of Western Asia, North Africa and parts of South Asia, honor killings take the lives of thousands of young women. Honor killings are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by a male family member against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family. Given the many cultural restrictions and limitations imposed upon women, a woman can be targeted by her family for several reasons, including refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of sexual assault, or seeking divorce. It does not matter if the woman wants to divorce her husband because he is abusive. No, in the context of cultural norms, her actions are interpreted as an attempt to dishonor her family. Therefore, she must be killed to make up for the offense.

Yes, a woman’s actions, no matter the underlying reasons, can dishonor an entire family. For all that responsibility, you would think being a woman also carries some privileges.

Cultural views of women also affect the number of women who are born every day. In regions across China and India, there is a preference for male children over female children. This preference manifests in terms of the most unbalanced gender ratio ever to be seen in both countries. Female feoticide is an extremely callous form of violence against women.

The list goes on, but the main reason why women face violence worldwide is clear: Cultural norms allow, and even reward, violence against women.  

Family is the core of society and, as an independent entity, it reflects the norms dictated by society as a whole. However, family and society are interconnected. They affect each other constantly. As a result, if we want to change society’s view on women, we need to change the way families view and treat female family members. Conversely, in order to change the way families treat female family members, we must also change cultural views regarding women in our society.

Where do we make start? That is the real question. But, until we are able to raise the status of women worldwide, women will continue to die at hands of their husbands, fathers, and other males in their lives.

Sources:

• Amnesty International
• United Nations Population Fund
• World Health Organization
• The Advocates for Human Rights
• Gendercide Watch

By Paola Brigneti