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| Malala Yousafza |
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| Reeva Steenkamp |
Ending Violence Against Women is a heady goal. The immensity of it might be enough to send
each of us scurrying back to the warmth of our cozy homes, turning on the
television, and descending into mind-numbing ignorance. But the world continues to churn and turn and
violence against women rages on, unabated.
In the end, we all become its victims. In just the last few months there
have been screeching headlines from all over the world demonstrating senseless
violence to women. Malala Yousafza, 14
years old, wants to go to school in Pakistan to get an education, yet grown
men, belonging to the Taliban, see her as a threat, and shoot her. Reeva Steenkamp, fashion model and an advocate against violence, is gunned down by
her boyfriend just a day or two after tweeting her memorial to Anene Booysen, a
17- year-old South African compatriot, who was brutally gang raped and
murdered. A 23-year-old woman in India
boards a bus with a male companion, only to be brutally raped and ultimately
murdered by six men. These occurrences
reflect only a small fraction of the brutalities committed against women on a
daily basis but can, and should, serve as a tipping point for all of us to get
involved in the fight against this type of violence. Involvement can be as simple as educating
oneself about its global occurrences/ causes or by participating in various
grassroot movements; each action we do can start unhinging the cultural
realities that provide the catalyst for this type of violence.
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| Anene Booysen |
Statistics out of South Africa alone are startling. Every six hours a South African woman is
killed by her male companion, giving South Africa the unenviable distinction of
being the murder capital of the world – female homicide occurring at a rate five
times the global average. 40% of men
there have admitted to striking their wife or girlfriend and one in four have
admitted to raping a woman. Rampant
unemployment and poverty combined with a cultural acceptance that men have a
right to control women have enabled domestic rape to become a cultural
norm. In South Africa, violence against
women cuts across all socioeconomic layers - a woman is just as likely to be
raped or killed at the highest economic stratum as she is at the lowest. Added to the sense of male sexual
entitlement, there is ineffectual law enforcement of surprisinglystrict laws
against such violence. The embedded
social consciousness has created a wall of silence and a sense of powerlessness
among the female victims.
Equally surprising is the lack of social backlash in South
Africa after Reeva’s murder versus the rapid response seen in India after the
brutal bus attack. In India, legislation
was quick with strengthened penalties for rape and new laws making stalking,
acid attacks, and the trafficking of women and children crimes. The culture of misogyny plus the powerful
mystique of an Olympian athlete has clouded the tragedy of Reeva’s senseless
murder.
Even the United States is not inured to the powerful pull of
our athletes - we create an illusion around men of steel and promote men who
can run fast and throw balls to some godlike level. When they fall from grace, society often cushions
that fall with excuses and with a blinded allegiance to their heroics on the
field. No one knows for sure what the
tipping point may be for South Africa, but Reeva’s death may not be
enough. Already the wagons are being
circled, excuses are being circulated, and the truth of that tragic death may
never be known.
Ending violence is indeed a lofty goal but not
unattainable. Eldridge Cleaver often
cited the slogan, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the
problem.” Silence is a powerful enforcer
of bad behavior. Men are often victims
of their culture so it is incumbent on both women and men to break the wall of
silence, especially as witnessed in South Africa, where social mores are
indoctrinated from birth. Humans are not
born violent but, when there is an imbalance of power among the genders, and
specific roles are assigned, then violence can be seen as a way to control the
less powerful. Social, economic,
political, and health doctrines need to be adjusted to grant equality for all
the citizens in all cultures across the globe.
~ Shirley Silberman
