Statistics contained in the latest United Nations report on violence against women makes for alarming reading — and emphasises that enough simply isn’t being done to address the issue. According to the report, one woman in three is subjected to acts of violence. And only four women out of ten actually will take action against their perpetrators, reporting the violence to authorities. But the other six who won’t report the violence are the ones who would be subjected to further physical abuse, mental anguish, sexual assaults and live lives ruled by fear and trepidation.
Those who work with victims of domestic violence — most violence against women occurs behind closed doors, in domestic and matrimonial settings — can relate statistical, empirical and anecdotal evidence that many incidents of violence occur before a woman actually acts, makes a decision to leave a violent partner or reports it to authorities. Even then, the pleadings, excuses and promises of the male partner are often enough to entice women back into violent circumstance — and particularly where there are children involved. And once back in the domestic setting, the beatings resume — often with fatal consequences.
There is no easy answer to the issue of violence against women. In part, the problem may have cultural roots, where acts of violence are considered — wrongly — to be acceptable. The behaviour of men may also have been influenced by their own upbringing or social settings, where they witness fathers and other male relatives abusing women and mistakenly believe that the behaviour is acceptable. It’s not.
Police are also unwilling to take action in cases of domestic violence and may not be willing to interfere in what they perceive is a family’s private business. In North America and western Europe, police are trained to intercede once a call is made — and this policy has been developed as a result of cases where calls made to the police by women were not treated with sufficient weight, resulting in more sustained, and sometimes fatal, violence being inflicted on the female victim. Until such a time as society says ‘no more’, women, sadly, will suffer.
