Can violence against women really be stopped?

Malala Yousafza

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.

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