RAPE AND VIOLENCE
Rape and violence against women and girl children.
More than twenty years ago I was in Nairobi, Kenya, at an international Women’s conference. We spent long days discussing poverty and the lack of education amongst women. We discussed this universal problem of treating sons different from daughters. In most rural societies boys are fed better and boys have better chance at receiving education. We agreed strong and educated girls grow up to be better mothers and make better families.
We drew up resolutions that were sent to the United Nations and heads of governments all over the world.
Now twenty years later we know so little has changed. Boys are still the preferred tribe. They are still pampered and put on pedestals.
As long as women and girls remain backward or are made to remain backward with no education and no equal opportunities they cannot be enlightened mothers.
Mothers bring up the sons. A lot of anger is directed towards men as a species when discussing rape and violence. I feel we women have much to do with the attitudes of our sons who grow up to be men with little or no respect for women. We are the carers and nurturers and if we do not instil the right values we are to blame. Preference for a male child has to be wiped out. Mothers need to teach their sons that their sisters are equally important, teach boys to respect their sisters, mothers and grandmothers. We need to teach boys to be responsible in the home. I personally know of many families where women feel differently about daughters and daughters-in-law and treat them unfairly. Sons and sons-in-law are treated as elite, given false values. Women in so-called civilized households also allow men to think they are special. In many families men rape servants and the women in the family turn a convenient blind eye.
Until every woman realizes her girl child is equal to her male child, and someone else’s daughter is equally precious we can never wipe out these horrendous crimes of rape and violence.
Subscribe to RSS feed
Women in many third world countries don’t choose to be less or do less for their children. They simply engender what they’ve lived. They often don’t know better and if they do, they feel/are so disempowered by familial and societal attitudes/values/belief systems and, perhaps, a lack of education that they can make little difference. And so the cycle goes on…
I was appalled to see/hear the attitudes to and beliefs about women, in India, in a recent interview of mostly men. No blame was placed on the animals who raped the young women, instead women were blamed for dressing seductively and behaving provocatively, Bollywood movies were held responsible for arousing men to behave like animals and mothers and wives were blamed for not bringing up their daughters to be respectful and to ‘know their place’. What are the roles and responsibilities of men then?
A safe society is everyone’s business, men and women, mums and dads, families, the work place, schools and tertiary institutions, governments, the media…everyone, without exclusion….I believe some serious re-education is required….
Betty Bownath thank you for insight. Indeed the cycle goes on. With the one child policy combined with son-tin-gods growing up in many countries this horrific violence against women is not going to go away too soon.