When the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his message for the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women and Children ( November 25) that “every 11 minutes , a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member”, many people were shocked. This however is an often quoted fact when violence again women is discussed at world level, as also the fact that in the age group over 15 nearly a third of women suffer serious acts of violence including sexual violence. To this should be added abuse and sexual violence suffered by children which can leave a very lasting adverse impact. In the USA, where more reliable data is collected, nearly 40% girl children suffer from abuse and nearly 25% from sexual abuse.
While identifying causes of this violence, some are related to the traditional attitudes of gender inequality and discrimination as well as related attitudes of dominance over them by males. However what is important is that while high levels of violence of women have been recorded in several traditional societies, these have also been recorded in highly modern and ‘liberated’ societies where women have won significant rights of equal opportunities in many walks of life. Why do high levels of violence against women continue in such societies?
This is because the basic urge or the root cause of various kinds of violence at various levels comes from the basic instinct of dominance. Why is there class violence or caste violence? It is because of the urge of dominance. Why is there inter-faith violence? It is because of dominance. Why are there wars and civil wars? Again because of the urge of dominance of one over the other. Similarly gender violence is rooted in the urge for maintaining dominance, but one difference is that here it is more likely for violence to take place within close relationships. Several societies which try to introduce more equality for women at apparent levels but do not try to check the basic problem of relations of dominance because to do so would involve deep commitment to justice and equality for which the leadership is not prepared. Hence when outward level equality appears but deeper level dominance instincts remain, this continues to be reflected in high levels of gender-violence which inevitable involves high levels of violence in close relationships.
This is why this writer has persistently argued for years that all peace efforts should be closely related and supportive at various levels, and in this context the peace efforts and anti-war efforts, the inter-faith harmony efforts, the social and economic justice efforts and gender-equality and justice efforts are closely related. Without such a comprehensive mobilization, it becomes difficult for various social movements to achieve significant and desirable gains in isolation. In this context the high levels of gender violence even in the middle of surface-level efforts for equality can be understood.
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