Women with Disabilities

Violence Against Women - Misuse of Culture to Justify VAW

โViolence against women is an issue that cannot waitโฆ. At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetimeโฆ. No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge. Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk freeโฆ. But there is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.โ (UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, speaking at the launch of the Campaign to End Violence Against Women, 25 February 2008, 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women)

Violence against women is condemned by the international community as a violation of womenโs basic human rights, regardless of whether such violence is perpetrated by the State or by family members, whether in public or private spheres. But despite the international consensus on the need to end violence against women, violence against women persists in many societies. A key reason for this persistence is the misuse of โcultureโ to justify violence against women. Through this misuse of โcultureโ, violence against women is legitimised and thereby perpetuated.

The Research Program Consortium on โWomenโs Empowerment in Muslim Contextsโ (WEMC) sees violence against women as a mechanism of control used by patriarchal forces to disempower women. The use of โcultureโ to excuse violence against women is part of these processes of control and disempowerment. Various forms of violence against women studied by WEMC include:

State sanctioned violence legalised as punishment (e.g. Hudood Ordinances in Pakistan and stoning to death in Iran)
Family laws that undermine womenโs rights and may result in or promote acts of interpersonal violence (e.g. in Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia)
Organised rape as a weapon of war in armed conflicts between the State and ethno-nationalist separatists (e.g. in Indonesia)
Violence inflicted by para-State actors, such as Islamist โsharia policeโ who impose โcurfewsโ and whippings (in Indonesia) and politico-religious groups (in Pakistan) who have attacked female teachers and students for failing to comply with their new unilaterally imposed dress codes, have bombed and burnt down girlsโ schools, and encouraged the beheading of women not attired according to their new rules
The curtailing of womenโs physical and social mobility by threatened or actual violence

These and other forms of gender-based violence make it dangerous for women to exercise agency as autonomous persons. Nevertheless, despite such risks, women in diverse contexts have long negotiated for their rights through indigenous strategies, contrary to spurious claims that womenโs empowerment is alien and illegitimate. Most, however, have struggled alone, their strategies largely undocumented, their endeavours muted by violence justified as โtraditionโ or โreligionโ.

WEMC documents womenโs choices, discourses and strategies to assert their rights in the face of violence used as a mechanism of control in China, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and cross-border contexts. As a mechanism, violence is not only inter-personal, but systemic and structural. We examine the potential of legal, political and social systems to be either obstructive or supportive. We also analyse how women themselves access and use resources that can protect them from violence. WEMC explores whether alternative mechanisms of redress exist and whether these reinforce or reduce gender-based violence. In Indonesia and elsewhere, we examine tensions between secular laws and interpretations rendered by local Sharia courts and institutions. In Pakistan, we explore government responses to inter-personal violence and how these may be made more effective. Across all sites, we focus on how women make empowering choices in the face of disempowering forces.

WEMCโs Strategy Paper Rejecting โcultural; justifications for violence against women is intended as a contribution to global efforts to end violence against women. This Paper focuses on how to reject โculturalโ justifications for violence against women, discussing two ways of doing this:

By strategizing around key opportunities that have emerged in the UN system
By countering โculturalโ justifications for violence against women at micro, meso and macro levels

Source: http://www.wemc.com.hk/web/culture_and_VAW.htm

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When: 7/2/2014