International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

By Susie Burdett

The United Nations has declared the 25^th November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and marks the beginning of the 16 days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. Which seems as good a time to blog as any!

But the difficulty is what to blog about. I could talk about the abuse women suffer at the hands of those at home, by strangers, and even, in some places, by the authorities. I could discuss the use of such cruel punishments as flogging and the death penalty (or even just the death penalty itself). The choice is (sadly) almost endless, but I think I’m going to take inspiration from the root of the day, and see where it takes me…

The 25^th November isn’t just a random date chosen from the 365 available, but is the anniversary of the assassination of the Mirabal Sisters. Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa were three sisters (their fourth sister is still alive and curates a museum dedicated to them) heavily involved in the resistance against the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ordered their assassination. On the 25^th November, after a visit to their husbands in prison, the three sisters, plus their driver, were dragged into a sugar cane grove then beaten and strangled to death. This marked the beginning of the end for Trujillo, who was assassinated a year later.

The Mirabal Sisters are just some of the many female political campaigners who dedicate their lives, sometimes at great danger to themselves, to promote democracy, equality or justice. Women all over the world, in many different ways, have, do and will continue to fight for what they see as right. From the Suffragettes of late 19^th/early 20^th Century Britain, to women participants in collective action in the South America, Asia and Africa, women have and do fight to promote democracy.

Political participation, however, continues to be problematic for the female sex. Women who wish to actively participate in politics continue to face challenges and obstacles, even when they have gained the right to vote and to stand in government. In Afghanistan, for instance, female candidates face intimidation and often violence during their campaigns. For one candidate, this intimidation ended in tragedy when five of her campaigners (all male) were killed.

Even in countries with a longer history of equal participation, such as the US, women candidates face obstacles in their campaign. This article shows how news media in the US treat male and female candidates differently. Female candidates not only receive less coverage, but their coverage concentrates more on their viability as candidates than their issue positions, and to further compound their chances, their viability coverage is more negative than their male counterparts (for instance, we are likely to be able to say more about the likelihood of Christine O’Donnell being a witch than on her political beliefs). With this kind of coverage, the general public, who are often dependent of the news media for their information on candidates, are more likely to form a negative opinion of female candidates than their male opponents.

But let us be more positive for a moment. Where there is success for female activists, and there are many successes, the benefit isn’t just to them, or just to women, but to the whole of their communities, country and to the wider world, who in today’s global communication era are touched by the efforts of others. This week we have also seen the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose decades long campaign to bring democracy to Burma, which has come at such a huge personal cost, has brought international attention to the plight of the Burmese people, and whose release will hopefully bring fresh hope to the people of Burma.

I realise that I have strayed from the theme of eliminating violence against women, but I firmly believe that without democratic privileges, women will not be free from violence, as they will not be able to hold to account the people who perpetrate that violence without the mechanisms which democracy gives them. Democracy is also an appropriate subject, as for many prominent female political campaigners (as well as make campaigners), violence and aggression are common tools employed to silence them.

I have always said that I will cast a vote at every opportunity given to me, because people have fought to give me that right and people continue to fight for that right, facing intimidation, aggression and violence. Voting is a privilege I am lucky to have, and with privilege comes responsibility.

The Bare Facts - Violence

Statistics on violence against women: the global picture
Sexual and gender based violence against women paints a disturbing picture, up to one-third of adolescent girls report forced sexual initiation.

For example, a recent study suggests that in the United Kingdom:

- one in three teenage girls has suffered sexual abuse from a boyfriend,
- one in four has experienced violence in a relationship,
- one in six has been pressured into sexual intercourse,
- one in sixteen said they had been raped.
- Mass rape of women and girls continues to be seen as somehow a legitimate military weapon.

Reports suggest that, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a war that lasted a mere three years, somewhere between 10,000 and 60,000 women and girls were raped.
Sexual violence against men and boys continues undaunted, unreported, understudied, and too often a source of ridicule and derision.

According to a number of studies, somewhere between 5 and 10% of adult males report having been sexually abused in their childhood.

Women suffer violence in health care settings, “including sexual harassment, genital mutilation, forced gynecological procedures, threatened or forced abortions, and inspections of virginity.”

Sexual violence in schools abounds almost in every country in the world, in Canada, 23% of girls experience sexual harassment.

There was a 25% rise in rape and sexual assaults between 2005 and 2007, among all violent crimes, domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault showed the largest increase.


Adapted from www.cabsa.org.za
Author: Pieter Visser, accessed 25th November 2009

The Bare Facts - Violence

Violence against Women
• Violence causes more death and disability worldwide amongst women aged 15 – 44 than war, cancer, malaria or traffic accidents (Directorate of Public Health)

• One in 3 women worldwide have been beaten, coerced into sex or are abused in some other way

• In the former Yugoslavia 20,000 women were raped during the first months of the war (Physicians for Human Rights)

• Between 200, 000 – 300, 000 women are trafficked to Europe every year ( Human Rights Watch)

• Over $7billion a year is generated from sex trade trafficking (Peace Women)

• 2 million women in the USA are battered by their partners each year

• 75% of all Russian women suffer from some type of violence within the family.

• Every year 6,500 brides in India are murdered because their marriage dowries are considered inadequate

• 48 million women in Pakistan live under Karo-Kari law allowing them to be buried alive for refusing an arranged marriage.

• The 5 million women of Somalia are liable for public stoning for adultery

“It is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern conflict”(Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, 2008, former UN Peacekeeping Operation commander in DR Congo)

Another Me

by Stephanie Hubbard

‘Because … I am afraid what will happen if people know what I have gone through, and because I am a Muslim girl.' (17 year old subject of 'Hidden by the Burkha')



I was at Greenbelt Festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend and whilst meandering around the various tents and stalls I came accross this rather amazing photo exhibition tucked away in one corner of the site.

Although only small reproductions, the photographs displayed had an extraordinary power and presence that made me want to discover more about the project, the photographer and the women involved.

'Another Me' is the name of this exhibition, described as 'Transformations from pain to power'. The subjects, all girls and women aged from 8 to 25 years, are survivors of trafficking, rape or abandonment, or are the children of sex workers.

This unique project is the work of documentary photographer Achinto Bhadra and was conceived by the Terre des hommes Foundation. The images show women dressed in elaborate costumes, face paint and masks which stems from a need to protect their identities but also as an aid to psychological transformation as they reveal hidden facets of their inner selves.

'Achinto's portrait's record trafficking survivors' imaginative visions of themselves as human, animistic and divine beings of power, love, revenge and freedom.' (Another Me website)

My favourite pictures are 'God' 'Durga, The Mother Goddess' and 'The Clown' but each photograph is beautiful from the vivid colours of the costumes to the poignancy of the stories that acompany each image.

To see all of the images and find out more about the project check out their website by clicking here.

Photograph: Hidden by the Burkha by Achinto Bhadra from www.rencontres-arles.com

The Greatest Silence

by Kevin E.G. Perry

Back in March, I was invited to speak at the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice’s Human Rights Film Festival, at Oxford Brookes University, following a screening of ‘The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo’. It is a powerful and shocking documentary made two years ago by Lisa F Jackson, who draws on her own experience as a rape victim, and I would highly recommend it although it is far from comfortable viewing. At one point a Congolese doctor describes how he thinks that each patient he sees has the most harrowing story imaginable, until he encounters the next, and the film is similar – each story, told firsthand, brings a fresh horror to what has gone before.

Video is here

It was difficult to find any glimmers of hope following such a distressing film, but I tried to highlight some of the remarkable work that Christian Aid’s partners are able to do, even in the war-torn East, to rebuild lives torn apart by sexual violence.

I told the story of Afua, who was abducted by Mai Mai militia in 2002 while out farming in the fields and was gang raped while being held at a military camp. She told Christian Aid’s partners that when the soldiers eventually left the area, she immediately sought out medical help. ” I was physically sick with worry that I had caught AIDS. I was in trouble with my husband. He didn’t want me anymore – he wanted me out of the house and away.”

Afua was helped by Madame Albertine, head of Christian Aid partner UMAMA. She arranged medical tests which proved Afua was free from disease and gave counseling, acting as a bridge between Afua and her estranged husband, who had accused Afua of seeking and enjoying sex with her attackers. As ‘The Greatest Silence’ explores, this view of rape victims is common. Afua was eventually reconciled with her husband and children, after Albertine had made it clear to him that his wife had been a victim, targeted because she was vulnerable in the fields where she worked to feed her family.

UMAMA also helped Afua with a loan of $100 for a bread oven, allowing her to earn a living without the obviously traumatic need to go back into the fields where she was attacked. She now earns $20 a week, the same amount her husband, a nurse, earns in a month, and is able to pay back $10 each month to pay off UMAMA’s loan.

Afua says now that “UMAMA is a good organization. It helped our family to survive and stay together.” While the scars of her attack remain, organisations like UMAMA are, in some way, able to rekindle hope. It brings to mind another partner organisation, Fondation Femme Plus, who are made up of women living with HIV-AIDS and its consequences. They specialise in psychological, social and medical support, as well as promoting income-generating activities for women with HIV-AIDS such as a restaurant, a tailor’s workshop and photography training. Their slogan is “Rendre l’espoir est notre vocation” - Returning hope is our job.


This article originally appeared on Congolese Dawn

In her own words: Gita’s Story

by Laura McAdam

Taken from an Interview in Kanpur, India in 2008


‘My father was a very cruel person, he was always beating my mother. After some time my mother died from my father’s torture. Then he married again, and he always beat his second wife as well. He was really very cruel.

He put my [step mother] in a box and locked it, sometimes he put fire so that she burned all up her body. He tied a chain and locked it round her ankle, sometimes he beat her so many times [she would] wet herself.

I was small and didn’t do anything, sometimes he tortured me also. There are still marks on my leg.

My step mother fell down and cracked her hip, nobody took her in so I admitted my mother to hospital. My Father was told, [came to the hospital] and threw my mother onto the garbage and said ‘Don’t bother with her’.

I went to my father and fought – ‘You should take care of my mother because she is injured and needs help from you!’ He refused.

Then Seema and Ranno (pictured below) told me about Sakhi Kendra (A Christian Aid partner organisation) and we contacted them six months ago (August 2007). They came and organised a public meeting at my father’s place. There were approximately 200 people there and they motivated and organised a signature campaign for justice, for shelter for my mother and for her rights.



About 150 women petitioned the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and gave him the signature campaign. Then the SSP ordered the police into organising an enquiry – the women said no to this [as it wasn’t enough] – so SSP ordered the police in charge to go with the women to the house of my father.

The women threatened that if the police didn’t help quickly then they would have sit down and hunger strike. This made the police help and they evicted my father.

The group of women went to the hospital and took my step mother and put her into my father’s house. My father was chucked out, he came wanted to take food and money but the group of women told him to go away. My step mother told him to go away because now it’s her house.’

All the women now provide support to Gita’s step mother. At present she can walk with a Zimmer frame but is in a lot of pain. Gita added ‘She said she couldn’t come here [to meet us] so told us to tell her story.’

Gita’s friend Seema said ‘We have acheived so much, perhaps we couldn’t have helped without Sakhi Kendra.’

Gita stated: ‘We want to help other women also, and we feel we have power. We can do anything.’

Sakhi Kendra is a partner organisation funded and supported by Christian Aid working for women’s rights, against violence and abuse against women, and helping individual women in trouble.

In her own words: Reema's Story

by Laura McAdam

Taken from an interview in Kanpur

'My name is Reema, I wanted to study but when I went to school some of the boys teased me. I answered back to them but they threatened to kill me saying ‘how dare you try and stop us’. One boy proposed to me but I told him I didn’t like him. Somebody told my mother about what had happened and my mother became very angry and suspicious thinking that I was not good. Then my parents organised a marriage for me and forced me to marry a different boy.
After I got married I was not happy. I had been studying and I had wanted to do something in life. My husband and my in-laws said ‘we’ve bought you so we can do anything to you.'

One night my husband made me lie down and then he tied me up and sexually tortured me all night. When I claimed he tortured me all night he said ‘we have bought you so all the rights of your body are mine.’ I said ‘no, this is not right’, and so he tried to hang me.

Then I gave my husband a glass of milk and he put his hand over my mouth saying I had attempted to murder him. I attacked him back and my husband called my parents and told them ‘your daughter is not good and does not obey me.’ My parents took my husband and my in-laws side. I attempted suicide as I thought that nobody in the world who would understand that my pain existed. Then someone found me and my husband carried me to the police. I told the superintendent everything and he didn’t know what to do with me because I didn’t want to go back to my husband and I didn’t want to go to my parents house either. So he called Sakhi Kendra (A Christian Aid partner organisation) telling them ‘There is a girl here who is suffering so much – can you help her?’ I was sent to the [Sakhi Kendra safe house] on 27th June [2007] at 6am.

At present I am very happy here because all of the members are like my family, only better. The best part is that they understand me and appreciate me. When I came here I was frightened but very quickly I liked it better than my own house.

I am [in 2008] 18 and studying for my graduation, and I am trying to become economically self dependent as soon as possible."

Sakhi Kendra is one of Christian Aid's partner organisations in India. Sakhi Kendra campaigns for women’s rights, against violence and abuse against women, and helps individual women in trouble.

Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in 49 countries through partner organisations. We act where the need is greatest, regardless of religion, helping people build the life they deserve.