Violence against women

 "As soon as a woman thinks reasonably fast, it is called intuition"

A quote by Barbro "Bang" Alving (1909-1987) a famous Swedish journalist and author which clarifies the patriarchy's view of smart women.

There are those who claim that the escalating violence against women is due to gender equality and that men feel threatened by strong, smart, independent women. Okay, maybe to some extent, but violence against women has always existed since ancient time, it has just been practiced behind closed doors, hidden and kept quiet about.

Nor can one give violence against women its definition through mere assault, rape or murder, I think. Violence can include so much more, psychological abuse, threats, stalking, surveillance and restricted freedom, etc. 

Unfortunately, we are used to hearing about physical and mental abuse in relationships, but it has become increasingly common for women to even be killed by their partner.                                                

The most feared outcome of assault is murder and in this diagram we see the development of lethal violence in relationships here in recent years. (Source: The Swedish Crime Prevention Council)

Cultural and religious facts have also an impact on women's lives in many parts of the world, and now we see it in our immediate surrounding due to immigration and the refugee situation. 

Violence of honour is a big problem. Fathers and brothers who kill their daughters and sisters because they have "dishonoured" the family when they have started dressing like all the other girls in their new country or got a native boyfriend.

In Sweden we will always remember Fadime, a young beautiful woman who was murdered by her own father soon to be 20 years ago.

Fadime Şahindal, born April 2, 1975 in Elbistan, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, died January 21, 2002, was a Swedish woman who was killed in an honour-related murder in Uppsala. Her father murdered her because she not only violated the family's honour codes but also spoke publicly about the culture of honour. Her father was sentenced for the murder to life in prison. 

There have been many young women and girls other than Fadime who have suffered the same fate, both here and in other countries. The problem here is that there isn't any statistical category for the honor killing simply because there is no crime in the penal code called honour killing, but it is still debated, which is gratifying, even though, as always with changes to the law, things are unbearably slow.

The basic problem, the ingrained notion that women are inferior to men, must change if women are ever to feel safe from any type of assault from men.

But here I also want to add, with emphasis, it doesn't apply to all men...

XOXO