Violence towards woman occurs all over the world, in every culture and undoubtedly also near you. It doesn’t matter if it’s war or peace, you can find abused women everywhere. At least a third of all women are going to be exposed to severe violence during their life-time. It’s easy to establish the fact that violence against women are much too common.

Violence within the family

Most of the violence occurs in the women’s homes and the perpetrator is often a man they know. The violence is quite varying, it can be physical, psychological or sexual. Men that practise physical abuse often hit and kick their victim in places that aren't visible. This makes it much more difficult for friends and relatives to discover the abuse. It’s even more difficult, if not impossible, to discover psychological abuse. But we have to remember that it’s not the number of bruises that decide how severe the abuse is, mostly the worst pain is in their hearts. Women are often ashamed when it comes to

violence within the family. They blame themselves and are afraid to report the abuse to the police. The reason is often fear for the man, economical dependence or their will to keep the family together.

Is this acceptable?

Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse is a joint name for rape, sexual outrage and sex-harassment. Rape is very common and is often considered as the worst and most severe sexual abuse. A rape is extremely humiliating for a woman and it harms both her body and soul. Because of the shame that comes with a rape only a few women report it and even fewer reports lead to conviction. A big problem with sexual violence is, besides from all the suffering the women are put through, the spreading of venereal diseases. This kind of violence is a contributing reason to the high number of HIV and AIDS infected women. 55% of the persons that daily are infected by AIDS are women.

During war and armed conflicts the violence against women often increase. Soldiers rape women and use them as their own sex-slaves. In Bosnian- Herzegovina 20000-80000 women were raped and this was only during five months.

Harmful customs
Many cultures in the world practise violence that are considered normal or as a part of their tradition. Sexual mutilation of female's is an example of “accepted” violence. Approximately 20 million women have mutilated sexual organs and over two million girls and women are exposed to it every year. It is extremely painful and something that destroys their sexual enjoyment. It’s most common in Africa and Asia, but it also occurs among immigrants in countries like Denmark, France, England and Sweden. It is classified as a harmful custom with severe psychological and medical consequences.

The sex-related violence is a global problem and it seems to increase all the time. Women can never feel safe, not even in their own homes. It’s really sad that they blame themselves because it’s never, ever their fault. Violence towards women only reflects what the world looks like today, men have the power and uses it to oppress women. Of course we all have to react and take our responsibility but in the end it’s up to all men to create a better future. They have to change their attitude against women and treat them with dignity and respect. Not until then will this terrible violence hopefully end and maybe the world can be a safe place for women too.


© 2004 Freeway
Writer: Madeleine Nyström (Sp05-20@park.se).
HTML by: Dennis Häggquist (Nv06-06@park.se).