Women and Violence

Tomorrow December 6^th marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women

On December 6, 1989 fourteen women were murdered in Montreal, Canada by a man who blamed women for all the misfortunes in his life .Twenty-two years later women world-wide are routinely subjected to personalized and institutionalized violence of varying forms and degrees.

The United Nations states: “Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, crossing all socio-economic and educational classes. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the right of women to participate fully in society. Violence against women takes a variety of forms, from domestic abuse and rape to child marriages and female circumcision. All are violations of the most fundamental human rights.”

Health Canada cites data from Statistics Canada reporting that half of family homicides involved spouses, three times as many women are killed by their spouses as were men killed by their spouses and that girls are at greatest risk of sexual assault by a family member while between 12 and 15 years of age. It goes on to add that violence is a major factor in women’s health and well-being resulting in  measurable health-related costs of violence against women in Canada exceeding $1.5 billion per year.

Costs include short-term medical and dental treatment, long term physical and psychological   care, lost time at work, and use of transition homes and crisis shelters.

The question begs to be asked,” How can we as individuals make a difference?”

In whatever part of the world we live we must first acknowledge the existence of this problem.  We must also develop meaningful dialogue with our sisters and with the males of all ages in our family, even as we lobby for the strengthening of legislation to protect women and girls. Every effort must also be made to challenge the judicial system to counter sexism as it deals with women issues in the courts and it is imperative that our daughters, from an early age, be alerted to the warning signs that obscure violence under the guise of love and concern.

I urge you to start a dialogue with even a few friends so that women from all walks of life will join hands and take action not only during the month of December.

After all we are our sisters’ keepers. Keep remembering that:

Women are worthy so let’s keeping soaring like eagles.

Ettie