Female Genital Museum

Over the past two weeks, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has become a broad feature in the British media. As the founder of 28 Too Many Ann-Marie Wilson has successfully published an article in the Huffington Post on the number of children at risk of being subjected to FGM, The Independent has analysed what is known as ‘The UK’s Cutting Season’. Now that the British summer holidays are in full swing, around 25,000 girls are at risk of being subjected to FGM against their will. This year, Nigeria sponsored a resolution at the World Health Assembly to end FGM, yet the practice is still rampant across the country. As it is clear that FGM continues to be practiced worldwide, it is important to address what more could be done in countries like the UK and Nigeria, and how lessons can be learned from successful FGM intervention programs.

In the UK, laws exist to prevent the practice of FGM. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 imposes penalties of up to 14 years in prison on those who practice FGM, and those who aid and abet occurrences of the crime. The 2003 act is an amendment of the previous 1985 act. Despite the act being introduced, not a single person has been prosecuted. It is clear that the act’s existence alone is not enough to prevent the crime from occurring, and that it is simply empty rhetoric in the battle against this atrocious crime. In order for any criminal act to be effective, the crime needs to be reported. As the practice of FGM is against children who are too young to have a voice, or too afraid to speak out, it is unlikely that they will step forward as victims. As the communities that practice FGM shroud the practice in secrecy, it is rare that anyone will speak out on the child’s behalf.. Until recently, FGM has continued to be an issue that is largely unheard of in the UK, with many leading politicians being unaware of what it involves, or even that it is practiced. In addition to this, the NHS does not offer reconstructive surgery to victims of the practice. Based on this, it is clear that the UK is failing to protect those who are at risk.

The UK’s failure to prevent FGM does not mean that the existence of legislation is always redundant. In France, over 100 prosecutions have been made, but there are stark differences between the way France approaches FGM, and the way the UK approaches it. It is believed that France’s successes are due to the annual health checks performed on young girls at risk across the country. These include a brief look at the external genitalia by a medical professional in specialised clinics until the age of six. Once the child begins attending school, these annual checks are continued by the school nurse. In addition to this, French campaigners have reported successfully placing injunctions on those who have been reported by family members for planning to mutilate their daughters. It could be argued that the tougher stance on those who have practiced FGM in France has acted as a deterrent. Alternatively, it could be that France’s determination to make the issue public raises enough awareness for communities to abandon the practice. A study by the University of Barcelona has demonstrated that France as a country have seen a reduction in the number of girls subjected to FGM. It could therefore be argued that the French’s determination to make FGM a public issue has created enough awareness to encourage communities to cessate the practice of it.

In contrast, the women of Nigeria have been subjected to the same horrors as those in the UK and France, but the practice of FGM is far more widespread, and harder to combat. It is estimated that in some areas, up to 56% of women have been subjected to FGM, while in others it is as low as 0.4%. In addition to this, experts believe that ‘official’ statistics are not a true reflection of those women who have not been reached by researchers, and therefore the real percentages may be higher. In a literature review conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it was found that communities where interventions existed had seen a reduction in the practice of FGM. The WHO’s literature review focused on communities in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. As well as finding that interventions in the form of educational sessions were effective, the WHO’s review detected barriers to making such interventions successful.. These barriers included a lack of financial compensation, as well as husbands refusing to grant their wives permission to attend educational sessions.

In order for FGM to be eradicated around the world, all countries need to take a unified and consistent stance. While legislation exists to protect women in countries like the UK, its existence alone is ineffective in preventing the crime. Human rights laws that focus on abuse and torture in Nigeria can be loosely interpreted to prosecute perpetrators of the crime, but areas where interventions do not exist witness an ever-increasing number of girls who are subjected to it. By establishing a sense of consistency, FGM can be universally wiped out.

So what is it that countries need to be consistent with? In addition to providing clear legislation, interventions and support for men and women who are interested in them are needed. Medical outreaches that focus on educating communities on the benefits of eradicating FGM should be expanded; this should focus on male members of the community, as well as female. By establishing a sense of unity against the issue across the world, practices such as taking children to other nations to undergo FGM can also be halted.

If you personally are interested in ending FGM, you can begin by writing to your local MP, congressman, or any other relevant governmental representative and ask them to do more to address the issue. The more our leaders are pushed to end the practice, the more likely it is they will do something about it. In addition to this, you can sign the following petitions to press world leaders to take a stand against FGM:
http://www.endfgm.eu/en/petition/ - Europe

http://www.petitiononline.com/fgm2003/petition.html - United States

http://forcechange.com/23321/prosecute-female-genital-mutilation-in-the-uk/ - United Kingdom

http://www.enditnow.org/petition-lightbox - International


By Laura Mckeever

Afghanistan: Where God comes to Weep, Indeed

Hope of peace and an equal place for women in Afghanistan is officially dead.

A horrific video shot last month near Kabul, shows a Taliban fighter executing a woman with shots to the back of her head. And as he goes on with unabashed sadism, there is a whole village that watches and cheers, like a ludicrous string of puppets piling plaudits on a loathsome “achievement”. She isn’t shot once. Nine times. As if to extinguish every last iota of life – lest she be a cat with nine of them inside. Disgusting. The twenty-two year old, the woman - no, actually, girl – was accused of adultery.

The video is a grim reminder that the Taliban have not really left Afghanistan, that a woman cannot live without a threat to her existence, lest she fall from the high pedestal of “accepted conduct”.

I must confess I am an Afghanistan-literature-junkie. I have a whole bookshelf devoted to Afghanistan – from Jean Sasson’s For the Love of a Son, to Asne Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul, from Gayle Tzemmach Lemmon’s The Dress Maker of Khair Khana, to Deborah Miller’s The Breadwinner, from Khaled Hosseini’s magnum opus A Thousand Splendid Sons and painful story The Kiterunner, to Siba Shaqib’s Samira and Samir. And it is the last one that jolted me most, when read in keeping with this video. Samira and Samir tells the tale of a person who was born Samira, but her father was too ashamed to father a girl, lest he fall from society’s pedestal for him. Samira is then brought up as a boy, and grows to embrace the acquired gender despite the ascribed gender. When I first read the novel, a part of me was disgusted at how Samira embraced being Samir – and how the author found the propensity for such a story to find authenticity. One part of me made me realize that there was sense in Samira’s choice of being Samir – because Samira knew nothing else. Having been brought up as a boy, to ride the horse, to fight like a soldier and to be the guardian of his family – Samira was only Samir in existence. But another part of me wondered if Samira’s mother was a really practical character – allowing her husband to sheath her daughter in the public eye with the title of a son. I did know about Afghanistan’s history – and its women’s difficulties under the Taliban. But I still didn’t find myself relating with Siba Shaqib’s plot. Until I saw The Video.

The Video is footage from Afghanistan, shot about two months ago. It has Taliban members saying that the executioner was the woman’s husband. But there are different versions - Colonel Masjidi has said that the woman's real husband was a member of a village militia that had slain a local Taliban leader. The woman was executed in revenge on trumped up charges of adultery. Roshna Khalid, a spokeswoman for the provincial government, claimed that the woman was killed for having multiple affairs with Taliban fighters. She said that the woman's name was Najiba, and that she was in her 20s and did not have children. A third official, called Qari Abdul Rahman Ahmadi, who was a member of the provincial council, said the woman had run off with a Taliban commander, who in turn was accused of passing information to government forces. He was shot in a village before Najiba was executed by her husband.

The girl kneels in the background, in the video. She is in her chadder, it appears – the blue canvas prison that imprisons many women like her across Afghanistan, in a veil of alleged security for chastity. Random voices show a bunch of Taliban fighters speaking, most of whom seem to be walking about in the video, while a dozen villagers watch from a hill above. One of the Taliban men in the video, go onto say that the Koran prohibited adultery, and that killing the woman was as per God's order and decree. "If the issue was avenging deaths, we would beg for her amnesty. But in this case, God says, 'You should finish her.'", he appears to say. "It's the order of God, and now it is her husband's work to punish her." And then someone else says, "Give him a Kalashnikov." Armed with the borrowed assault rifle, the man identified as her husband approaches the girl from behind. Several Taliban fighters can he heard whispering, "Get closer to her." And then he shoots. Once, twice, thrice... nine times. You can tell, by the third shot, the girl is quite dead – as it jolts her body backward, leaving it flat on the ground. By the ninth shot, even the cadaverous remains are dead, so dead, that even Death has walked away in agony. The Taliban begin cheering and the villagers join in. One of the Taliban says, "Take my video, too," and can be seen smiling. The video ends – but not before the executioner shoots the girl's body four more times.

And then I understood Siba Shaqib’s plot, and cried because of the profoundness it exuded, because of the pain it spoke of, because of the Taliban and the thousand wrong things they did – especially to the women of Afghanistan. Which mother wouldn’t prefer that her daughter be shown to the world as being a boy, if being a girl only meant a perennial sword would hang over her head? Should you fall from the public eye because someone thought you had no honour, they would kill you. Should you go uncovered in public, they would flog you and the man of your house for letting you go thus. Should you ask to go to a doctor, you would be prohibited. Should you still try, you would be beaten. Should you still fight and go see a doctor, none would see you. Should you be married away, most times it would be to a man several times your age. Should you protest, you will be silenced and laid underground. Should you fall in love, or have the gumption to choose a husband yourself, you will be killed to protect the honour your family is entitled to. Should your husband cast an aspersion on your chastity, you could be stoned to death. Should your husband merely have a shadow of doubt on your alleged indulgence in adultery, it doesn’t matter that you are innocent, you would be shot, shot in the head in full public view. And a stadium full of men will applaud your killing. That is how merciless they were, are, and in all likelihood, maybe.

Written by Kirthi Gita Jayakumar

Sawara a Hateful System of Justice Still Practiced in Some Areas of Pakistan

When I describe this despicable system of justice that is still practiced in Pakistan, you will wonder if these people really exist in this day and age. Well this is what 'sawara' is. When two villages in some parts of the tribal area get involved in a feud; they wage battles, raids, etc against each other. At some point elders of both the villages or elders of other tribes may step in and decide to settle the dispute and stop the feud. The meeting of the elders is called a Jirga. The Jirga listens to both the sides and decides who is to blame for starting the feud.  

The village or tribe that started the dispute is asked to give sawara to the village or tribe against whom they went into battle. This implies that the guilty village has to give a girl to the village that they have harmed. Generally a teenage girl is selected to be given as punishment. The girl is then taken to the village and given a hovel to live in. She has to provide sexual services to the men of the village. She is an outcast in the village and treated like a pariah. She has to exist on whatever the villagers provide and she cannot deny providing sexual services to any male, young or adult or old who comes to her hovel. 

This poor creature who has done no harm nor was involved in the dispute becomes an outcast. If she bears any children, tough luck to her, and they are also shunned like she is. 

Have any of you ever heard or imagined that such a despicable system would be prevailing in any corner of the globe. Well it does in Pakistan and no government or law enforcement agency has ever taken any action against stopping this evil practice. There is just one NGO that tries to rescue these poor creatures. Generally they have to pay head money to buy the women. But after the experience of these women they are in such a state of shock that it takes years for them to adjust in society.   




By Zafar Ihsan

Marry your Rapist. Oh. Sure.

I am now beginning to read this book called The Secret Son, by Laila Lalami. For the past year and a half, most of the books I have read and have included in my collection of “to be read” are of tales and events set in different parts of the world. I endeavour, therefore, to understand the place a little before plunging into the literary portion itself. This book was no different- I began by reading a little on Morocco at first, before opening the leaves of the book- which by the way, are enchanting, so far!

When I typed Morocco in Google, a news item that talked of a protest on Women’s Day caught my eye.

On the 100th Anniversary of the International Women’s Day, the women of Morocco were protesting the death of a young girl, only about 16 years in age, who killed herself after she was forced to marry her rapist. Amina, the girl, was forced to take the drastic step after her husband brutally beat her. This ‘husband’ was her rapist. There were eye-witness accounts, which explained that Amina’s husband was so outraged when she drank poison, that he dragged her on the streets by her hair. She passed on shortly afterwards. Amina was forcibly married to her rapist, when her mother professed fears of her being unworthy of marriage to anyone else, and the court concurred with her contentions. Her father, though, had his own set of apprehensions. Which turned out to be true.

Growing up in South India, I have known that this kind of a predicament is reality for many girls in the rural parts of the region I come from. This, I gathered, is the true story of many a girl, through newspaper stories, news reports, and movies that hope to bring awareness of such an occurrence. My mind tended to believe that this was a product of illiteracy, or perhaps parochial considerations that forced literacy into hiding. The girl was anyway raped, what life does she have, now? Who will marry her, but for the man who raped her? I remember these lines as a dialogue in a random movie I saw playing while waiting at a doctor’s clinic. And he, she shall wed. The whole village applauded and cheered, and prepared for a wedding. Not one frame in that movie closed in on the girl’s face. Not one dialogue in that movie, afterwards, told the audience of what went on in the girl’s mind. I don’t know how that movie ended.

Never for a moment did I think that a literate populace, an urban society, would force a girl to marry her rapist.

Until I read this piece.

It turns out that Morocco’s Penal Laws were updated in 2004 in a bid to offer women greater ‘rights’. When I continued reading, I learned that Rape is punishable by five or ten years’ worth of imprisonment, which increases to ten or twenty years, if the victim is a minor. Not bad, I thought. As is in most parts of the world, the burden of proof for a rape case falls solidly on the shoulders of the victim herself. She is necessitated to prove that she was attacked, failing which she faces a possible prosecution for debauchery. Terrible, I thought. But here’s the deal-clincher. The rapist can marry an underage victim to preserve the honour of the woman's family. OUTRAGEOUS!

The first thought that occurred to me danced in my mind in Font Size 72, Bold, Underlined and Italicized. What kind of a warped, insane nut job could agree with this? The girl is raped, her modesty is lost, her honour is violated, and then you marry her off to preserve the family’s honour? Doesn’t that just sound so insanely ridiculous? What hope can a girl have in the law, when it decides to fail her anyway? Any rapist could get away so easily and walk away scot free by forcibly marrying his poor victim, while the rest of society attends his wedding and dances at it. And that “law” is continually failing the women in the society that it should rightfully protect, by creating more monsters who walk scot free. Today it was Amina. 

Tomorrow, how many more?

It is brave of the women in Morocco to take to the streets in protest. A Facebook page depicted the antagonism that throbbed through the veins of these women. But is it enough, I wonder. Morocco is not the only country in the Middle East to be determinedly antagonistic to its women through the use of arbitrary means to sentence its women. They are shouting hoarse for what they truly deserve. But who is listening?

By Kirthi Gita Jayakumar

To Kill, to protect Honour?

Jamila was to be married off to a cousin, but she couldn’t stand the idea, not one bit. The proclivity for her family to force on her an incestuous bond in matrimony was far too much for her to accept, far too wrong for her to tolerate. Jamila was educated, even if not as much as her brother was- she still understood the wrong in allowing the marriage to take place. Jamila’s heart was with another, anyway, and marrying him was the only prospect she was willing to consider. So she devised a plan- she would run away on the eve of the wedding. A trusted friend would be her aide, and help her escape the pockmarked fate that was awaiting her. But even the truest of friends can be forced to turn foe, circumstances forcing her to be a tattle-tale. That night, Jamila was killed by her brothers.

Why?

Because the family’s honour is of utmost importance; Because a runaway bride is a prospect about a thousand times worse in comparison to a dead one; Because they can.

Jamila is a wispy piece of fiction for my article. But her fate is not. In the past year alone, as many as 943 Pakistani women were killed, all in the name of honour. They allegedly shamed their family, and by bringing their family disrepute, death was their decided punishment. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in its report, exposed the sordid reality shrouding the sudden deaths of these many women. 93 of these women were minors. In as many as 595 cases, the reason was the subsistence of alleged illicit relationships, while as many as 219 women had voiced a demand to marry a person of their own choice. The report reveals the dark horrors of unabashed antagonism to women- as many as 180 cases had their own brothers as the killers, 226 cases where husbands as the killers, and 19 of them were raped, while 12 were gang-raped.

But what is the honour in killing?

How could these men justify the killing of their women, all in the name of “honour”? I remember these lines I read in Shakespeare’s magnum opus, Julius Caesar, where Brutus says to Cassius,

Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,

And I will look on both indifferently,

For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

As contextually logical as these lines appear vis-a-vis Brutus’ exchange with Cassius on the subject of Brutus’ affection for a sense of honour, rather than to live a life with stigma, the insinuation of such logic in the hope of quelling any plausible dishonour stemming from a woman’s choice of standing for herself, or from a woman’s pursuit of a relationship with a man of her choice, is absurd. Outrageously so, at that.

Honour killings are a reflection of a society that is steeped in an uber-conservative mindset, and deeply entwined an ego-centric misunderstanding, wherein women are construed emblematic of their familial honour, through their behaviour and conduct in the public eye. Any ‘misconduct’ therefore, is a depredation of the family’s honour and pride, and needs to be prevented at any cost. The dishonour can be dispensed with, and honour can be restored only if the offending female is tossed off the cliff.

But this mindset is not confined to Pakistan. Palestine, Afghanistan, and even the west- wherein Canada’s records show the occurrence of the ‘honour’ killings of a couple of girls, to name a few, are hotbeds where the practice seems to thrive.

There is no doubt that a mentality that precedes the perpetration of such an act is a product of misguided and ill-gotten values. Reality is theirs to interpret - it appears, for they seem to liberally take the law into their own hands. The confluence of a politically liberal environment coupled with misinterpretation of religious texts as sanctioning the act by a couple of zealots is an unholy, heady mix. You cannot hope to be politically or religiously liberated if you fail to understand that social liberation goes alongside the both.

Honour lies in respect, in perseverance, in honesty and in humanitarian conduct. And when you kill, there’s no more dishonour than that.


By Kirthi Gita Jayakumar

Justice for Jassi?

On June 8, 2000, 24-year-old Jaswinder (Jassi) Sidhu was riding through the streets of Punjab, India with her husband, Mithu. They were relative newlyweds having been married only a year before. Jassi and Mithu met in 1995 when Jassi visited India with her family. They secretly married in March 1999 when her family returned to India, knowing that her family would not approve of the match because she came from a wealthy family and he was a poor rickshaw driver.

Jassi and Mithu

That fateful night in June 2000, they were ambushed by a group of men wielding swords and sharpened field hockey sticks. Mithu was seriously injured in the attack and left for dead. He was found on the day of the attack and taken to hospital. Jassi’s body was discovered floating in a water-filled irrigation ditch the next day; her throat had been slashed.

Police in India revealed that Jassi’s murder was a contract killing arranged and ordered by her mother and uncle (her mother’s brother) as a so-called “honour killing”. Soon after, eleven men were arrested for Jassi’s murder in India and warrants were issued by Indian police for Jassi’s mother and uncle who were living in Canada. However, Indian police did not have jurisdiction in Canada and Canadian authorities refused to extradite Jassi’s mother and uncle to India so that they could be arrested and tried for her murder.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) originally stated that, though Jassi was a Canadian citizen, they had no jurisdiction over her case since the murder occurred in India. However, once allegations surfaced that the murder was conspired in Canada, things changed. Canadian law states that a murder that is plotted on Canadian soil and perpetrated elsewhere lies in Canadian jurisdiction. Even so, Jassi’s mother and uncle had not been extradited to India or arrested in Canada for Jassi’s murder.

Shock waves emanated from Jassi’s murder in India all the way to her home country half a world away; it rocked the nation to its core. Jassi was a Canadian citizen, born and raised, who had done nothing wrong in the eyes of the people who knew her or the country that bore her. There was utter shock and absolute disbelief that the roots of such a crime, so-called “honour killings”, could have been perpetrated against a Canadian citizen, planned on Canadian soil, and arranged by those who should have protected her.

Eleven Years Later...

By 2005, seven of the men arrested for Jassi’s murder and the attempted murder of Mithu had been convicted for several crimes including murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. Though it has been alleged that Jassi’s uncle was in contact with the man who arranged Jassi’s killing in India, it has been established that Jassi’s mother was the one who gave the order to kill her daughter on the day that Jassi was murdered.

The Indian authorities have been working with the RCMP to build a case for the extradition of Jassi’s mother and uncle since 2004. On January 5, 2012, the Supreme Court of British Columbia finally issued arrest warrants under the Extradition Act for Jassi’s mother and uncle; they were arrested the next day. They made their first court appearance a few days later and were last reported as remaining in custody until their next hearing.

Sadly, Jassi’s case is not as unique as we would hope.  “Honour killings” are far too common, even here in Canada. There have been a number of “honour killings” reported in Canada over the past several years. They include:

Aqsa Parvez

            

Aqsa Parvez, 16 – Aqsa was strangled to death in December, 2007 for not wanting to wear a hijab. Her father and brother were sentenced to life in prison in June, 2010. They are not eligible for parole until 2028.




       

Khatera Sadiqi and, her fiance, Feroz Mangal

Khatera Sadiqi, 20 – Both Khatera and her fiance were shot in her car in September, 2006 because she got engaged without her father’s permission. Her brother was sentenced to life in prison in May, 2009.

Amandeep Atwal, 17 – Amandeep was stabbed 11 times in July, 2003 for moving to live with her boyfriend. Her father was sentenced to life in prison in March, 2005.







Aysar Abbas was stabbed 23 times in the neck and once in the heart in October, 1999 by her husband who believed she was having an affair with her business associate. Her husband was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 25 years. He tried to appeal the court’s decision by arguing that he was justified in killing his wife based on Muslim beliefs and “family honour” but the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his appeal and the original sentence was upheld in November, 2006. 

Sahar Shafia and Rona Amir Mohammed

And, as I sit here writing this article, I am watching a news update of a case in Ontario where a couple and their son have been tried for the murder of the couple’s three daughters (Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13) and the husband’s first wife (Rona Amir Mohammad).  Their bodies were found on June 30, 2009 submerged in a canal, inside the family’s car. It is alleged that the Shafia sisters were killed for defying the family’s rules when it came to clothes, dating, and socializing. Rona was infertile and allegedly wanted a divorce. She told immigration authorities that she was a cousin who was helping to raise the family’s children. If her true relationship to the family had been revealed, they could have faced deportation.

The verdict is guilty for all three accused. They have each been convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Only time will tell if Jassi Sidhu will receive the same justice that the other women mentioned have found for the crimes against them. Even so, justice is of little comfort to those who have loved all of these women and insufficient consolation for incomplete lives lost.


By Sandra Dyal

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