Breaking the Silence to Women Violence
Dec 3rd, 2009 by Kelvin Luk
November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and through videos, many people and organizations around the world are expressing their need to end the violence as well as the efforts they are undertaking to ensure that women have a safer world to live in.
UNIFEM, in the Say No to Violence channel on YouTube has already documented some of the actions being taken around the world to end gender violence. This video shows the Ngara Girls High School in Nairobi, Kenya, where young girls are being taught to say No to Violence, to stand up for their rights and also how to deal with rape, assault, harassment and other forms of gender violence:
Also in Kenya, the Kenyatta National Hospital has a Gender Violence Recovery Center, where women and their children can go and receive care in cases of violence against them.
Latin America and the Caribbean is a dangerous place for women. More than 50 per cent of the women in the region have been subject to aggression. In the Dominican Republic, for examples, 1 453 women were murdered between the years 2000 and 2008. In the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UN-INSTRAW launches a new video about the security of Latin and Caribbean women.
The places mentioned in the video are less developed, women tend to have less power in the family. Leaving women unable to speak and end the violence. Educating the women will reduce the amount of women violence happening, but what needs to be done to stop it? There are such high rates of murder that punishments needs to be set up to reduce the illegal activities. Also, as long as gender and race are still seen differently there will always be violence. There needs to be a sense of equality of gender and race to reduce the amount of violence occurring.
3 Responses to “Breaking the Silence to Women Violence”
After watching this video, I was reminded of how privileged I, along with many other women and girls, are as we are so fortunate to be in Canada, where we as women have more liberties that many others throughout the world. The Kenyatta National Hospital’s new unit is an incredible institution that provides these women who are suppressed and silenced to learn about sexual violence providing them with a gateway and a haven as depicted in the video. Education seems to be a way for women in this video to be heard after being silenced, for through it they are able to have their voices expressed although they may not always still be heard. Through education, it provides these women with options and therefore allows them to make an informed decision. In order to make a decision on needs to be educated, given numerous possibilities and know one’s rights. “Silence is dictated by the culture”, is expressed through the video but by breaking this silence, women are attempting to make their voices heard in order to create change and break the history of suppression. Although this hospital is only able to help a small portion of these women, it at least through word of mouth provides an understanding amongst women that they do not deserve to be silenced and harmed by others. They can stand up for themselves and speak about the injustices they have faced or experienced. As verbalized in the video, healing comes in many forms” for these women, they speak by praying, singing and re-telling their experiences. Although in the culture, these women have no rights by speaking their bring awareness to others in order for change to occur. Hopefully in the future creating change that as Kelvin described in his post, creates a system of punishment as a method for reducing these activities and giving voice to these silenced voices.
I have to say that I admire the journalist for being able to put up a story that do not stereotype the problem and pity its victims. It must be challenging to avoid falling in that trap, especially when the story is told through a western media, employing western language, techniques of editing stories, etc. However, the concern I have with those types of stories is that they seem to overshadow other issues that should be taken seriously as well. We can also sometimes assist to a sort of competition between such videos from causes or NGO about which concern will attract the most attention. On the other hand, I realize that maybe this is the only way to improve our world : by solving a problem at a time.
This is a really important issue and I also really liked the way the clip didn’t seem to victimize the people it filmed or discussed. I’m interested to know who produced it (from what news network is it from if it is from one?)
One of the sections which really struck me was where one of the women’s group leaders was talking about the woman who had actually been burnt by her husband. She said something like (Here I am speaking for the other) she had been physically hurt, but that her spirit was still strong, as well as other remarks about her. I thought this was a really good example of portraying people who are oppressed in a positive (and not victimized) light.
Still, and I am playing Devil’s Advocate here, sometimes I wonder whether these types of portrayals are really realistic? Do the positives in someone’s experiences who has gone through something like this really outweigh the negatives? This type of violence is so traumatic that I can imagine someone’s experiences onwards feeling extremely negative. Mind you, I know this is not cut and dry and it is also to be looked at on a case by case basis. And it’s also very important to focus on the positives, like the hopes people have maintained, and people’s incredible resilience.
The observation in the clip that marital rape is not a crime in Kenya reminded me of the fact that this was the same in Canada up until 1983. In other words, it was also legal for rape to be committed in marriage in Canada up until 1983. (This fact is shocking and disturbing.) I think this shows among other things, how widespread and deeply engrained gender violence is, while respecting the fact that violence towards women may be much worse in some areas of the world at this point.
I remember Eve Ensler writing something in The Vagina Monologues like the amount of violence and sexual assault towards women in the United States (or N. America?) is enough to be considered a war. This is through the sheer numbers of ‘victims’ affected.
If you want to check out the V-Day movement and what it’s about (started by Eve Ensler) go to http://www.vday.org.
Thanks for the video!