Violence against women

What you don't know about violence....

• Violence against women is rampant.
•  35% of women worldwide have experienced physical and sexual violence.
• Violence against women is everywhere: is one expression of women's unequal status that varies in form and degree across culture and countries
• In addition to the immediate injuries from the assault, battered women may suffer from chronic pains, gastrointestinal disorder, psychosomatic symptom and eating problems

What is Violence?
Violence is the intentional use of physical force, against oneself, another person, or against a community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death and psychological harm.
Types of Violence

1. Physical violence occurs when someone uses a part of their body to control a person's action. It includes: using physical force which results in pain, discomfort such as hitting, slapping, beating, kicking, burning, murder and assault with a weapon.
2. Sexual Violence occurs when a person is forced to unwillingly take part in sexual activity. It Includes touching in a sexual manner without concern (fondling, forced sexual intercourse, beating sexual part of the body and forced prostitution).
3. Emotional Violence occurs when someone says or does something to make a person feel stupid. Examples include jealousy, humiliating, name calling and intimidating.
4. Psychological Violence occurs when someone uses threats and causes fear in a person to gain control. Examples include threats of violence and threatening to harm oneself.
5. Cultural Violence occurs when a person is harmed as a result of practices that are part of his or her culture. Examples include banishment, practicing violence, being raped and lynching.

 Reasons to do away with violence against women
Violence and discrimination against women and girls are human rights violation. Violence against women affects everyone. When women are unequal and unsafe they can't fully participate in the society. Violence against women take countless forms from domestic abuse and dating violence to online and streets harassment, sexual harassment at work, rape as a weapon of war, bullying, forced and early marriage.

 The Health Effects of Violence
The effects of violence on a victim's health are severe. Domestic violence is associated with mental health problem such as anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder and depression. Women who are abused suffer an increased risk of unplanned/ early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV / AIDS. Abused women are more likely to have a history of sexually transmitted diseases, bleeding pregnancy and pregnancy complications.

Types of effects

1. Physical health effects include broken homes, burns, palpitation, high blood pressure and bruises.
2. Sexual health effects include painful intercourse, miscarriage, infertility, frequent pregnancies among others.
3. Psychological health effects include anxiety, low self -esteem, memory loss, phobias and frequent crying.
4. Psychiatric health effects include depression, eating disorder and post- traumatic stress disorder. Violence against women is preventive.

What do we do?
According to Mallika Dutt,Violence against women is staggering in scale. It is also one of the easiest things to stop. We don't need to create a new vaccine or a new technology. We just need to act. We can start in our homes and our schools by teaching kids to respect boys and  girls. We can also  demand enforcement of laws that protect women and punish offenders. We can speak up in our workplace, fraternities congregation and schools, use social media to challenge bullying and promote human rights. We believe that the norms and cultures that cause violence against women. The more we challenge and dismantle those norms, the more we are all safe, free and able to be our best and realest selves.

 THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD TO IMPROVE  WOMEN'S WELL- BEING IS IN OUR HANDS


Perpertual Oklu
Women wellbeing foundation