Violence Against Women – A Human Issue By Debbie Weber, coordinator
“Violence against women ... this is not a woman’s issue, this is a human issue.”
~ Joan Chittister, Westminster Town Hall Forum, Nov. 1, 2012
W
hat comes to mind when you think about violence against women? For most, it is the physical and emotional domestic violence that occurs here in the U.S. as well as all over the world. The statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence are scary: “One in every four U.S. women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Eighty-five percent of U.S. domestic violence victims are women. Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults. Most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.”
However, if one defines violence as an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, domestic violence is only one type of violence committed against women. According to Amnesty International, “there is a global culture that discriminates against women and denies them equal rights with men. Women today earn less than men, own less property than men, and have less access to education, employment, housing and health care. Most of the casualties of war are women and children; most of the world’s refugees and displaced people are women and children; most of the world’s poor are women and children. Human rights violations against women are often complicated by further discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sexual identity, caste, religion, class or age. Women experience systematic denial of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.” From my perspective, human trafficking, female genital mutilation and limited access to food and clean water, to name a few, are also acts of violence against women. Thankfully, there are dedicated individuals and organizations that are educating the world about all forms of violence against women. From actors and sports figures to the United Nations and nonprofits, people are speaking out against, and educating us about, violence toward women. WINTER 2013
Artwork created by Associate Karen Martin.
One such organization is The Clothesline Project, a dramatic and moving exhibit that addresses violence against women. Women decorate T-shirts using words and/or artwork to represent their particular experiences of violence against them, a friend or a loved one. The T-shirts are hung on a clothesline and displayed in a public venue. The purpose of this project is to bear witness to the survivors as well as the victims of violence toward women, to help with the healing process, to educate, document and raise awareness, and to provide support for communities starting their own Clothesline Project. Advocate and educator S. Joan Chittister, OSB, has been addressing women’s issues for more than 30 years. She is a founding member of The Global Peace Initiative of Women and has dedicated herself to advocating for universal recognition of the critical questions impacting the global community: peace, justice and equality. Her recent talk at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in November 2012 was entitled “The New Violence and its Unexpected Victims.” In that talk S. Joan stated, “Women are two-thirds of the illiterate of the world. Women are two-thirds of the starving of the world. And women are two-thirds of the poorest of the poor everywhere. That can’t be an accident. That’s a policy and it must be changed by that other third.” Joan will be coming to Cincinnati in April 2013. For more information call 513-347-1300. REFERENCES: Amnesty International: Violence Against Women http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/women-s-rights/ violence-against-women National Coalition Against Domestic Violence http://www.ncadv.org The Clothesline Project http://www.clotheslineproject.org Westminster Town Hall Forum: Joan Chittister http://westminsterforum.org/?p=1077
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