Violence Against Women » Feminist Peace Network

Playing The Damsels In Distress Card

Comments Off

Nov 032011

Want to do something really damaging and maybe hugely unpopular and can’t come up with a good sales pitch based on the merits of your idea? No worries, just play the Damsels in Distress card. In 2001, the Bush administration used the ploy to justify our invasion of Afghanistan–after all, we didn’t want to be seen as starting a war just for revenge and never mind that we’d never given a fig about what those women were going through until we decided we wanted to bomb the bejeepers out of their country. It worked so well that Bush played it again when we invaded Iraq, even though women there enjoyed more rights than in most Arab countries prior to our invasion.

Now there is a group called Ethical Oil that is using Saudi women’s human rights as a justification for proceeding with the environmentally devastating Tar Sands project.

———-

———

While the human rights of Saudi women are unquestionably being seriously violated, that has been true for some time and we have done little to help them because we need Saudi oil. And we continued to support the Saudi regime even though most of the 911 attackers were Saudi. But now it is convenient to say that we support Saudi women, regardless of the fact that Tar Sands will do nothing to help Saudi women and is also detrimental to women who live near the project. Maryam Adrangi explains,

The premise is that supporting “conflict oil” from Saudi Arabia would prop up a regime that is oppressive to women. The underlying motive, however, is not to talk about women’s liberation, but rather to deflect negative attention from the tar sands.

If women’s rights were of genuine concern to EthicalOil.org (and all the individuals that make it possible such as Ezra Levant, Alykhan Velshi, Kathryn Marshall, and their corporate oil buddies) then there would be conversation about the impacts that tar sands extraction has on women.

The tar sands boom has created dangerous jobs with long hours, fostering a culture of alcohol and substance abuse in the off hours. As a result, rates of sexual violence towards women have increased and women working in the industry have reported sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and unequal pay. Gender-based discrimination have also resulted in unequal access to higher paying jobs in communities in the region, and with skyrocketing housing prices and costs of living, there is also unequal access to housing. Increases in female homelessness exacerbate the challenges faced by women in the area.

Climate Connections has more on this here and Grist covers it here.

The, Feminist Peace Network recently started another website, Occupy Patriarchy, which is focusing on bringing a feminist perspective to the Occupy movement. One of the things that has quickly become apparent to us is that for women to participate in Occupy events, they need to feel safe. There have been a number of incidents of sexual assault, harassment and rape and how some of those incidents have been handled has been distressing. It is clear that is something that needs to be addressed but the right, which is fighting a losing battle to control the message in the face of the Occupy movement has seized on this as a reason to shut down Occupy camps.

Brandon Darby offers this twisted logic on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website,

The reality is that ideological underpinnings of the Occupy movement–such as collectivism, “consensus” decision making, and antipathy towards law enforcement—often lend themselves to the disorder that predators see as opportunity. Far from “empowering” women, the Occupy movement’s anarchist and socialist principles and policies are exposing female activists to greater danger. They cannot maintain order because they are in the midst of rebelling against it.

Right and capitalism, which allows such things as human trafficking and the porn industry to flourish while funding for domestic violence programs is slashed is perfectly safe for women? And unfortunately, it would appear that there are also those in the Occupy movement that feel that damsel rescuing is the honorable metaphor to use. Via Feminists Occupy London:

The fallacy of the Damsels in Distress argument is so transparent that it should really be a litmus test–if you have to invoke it in order to win your point, it is a losing idea, so quit acting like you think we should thank you.

—–

This Sunday, November 6th, Tar Sands activists are planning to encircle the White House to let President Obama know that proceeding with this horribly destructive project is a bad idea. I plan to be there and my sign will say, “Saudi Women’s Lives Are Not A Call For Tar Sands”.

As long-time FPN members and blog readers know, when FPN began, our focus was on the impact militarism had on women’s lives. Within a short time that expanded to include a definition of all violence against women as terrorism and over the years the lens has expanded to include the full range of women’s human rights and the myriad of ways in which they are violated.

Jane Roberts, co-founder of 34 Million Friends of UNFPA and a member of FPN has an excellent piece out that looks at the need to use a broad brush when discussing gender based violence that amplifies much of what we address on this blog and her piece is a very important read. Here is an few excerpt:

Whether there is an epidemic of gender based violence now, which seems to be the prevailing view among knowledgeable people committed to its curtailment, or whether it has always been just as prevalent but without the communications technology to holler it to the world is debatable. I suppose it really doesn’t matter. What matters is how broadly we define it now, and depending on that definition how we deal with it.

The web site of the United Nations Population Fund lists 16 forms of gender based violence. “Violence against women takes many forms: sexual assault, child marriage, incest, wife beating, prostitution, female genital mutilation, dowry-related violence, trafficking, sexual violence during wars, femicide, sexual harassment, ‘honour’ killings, forced sterilization, date rape, pornography and bride kidnapping. Violence against women may also take many forms of psychological abuse, intimidation and harassment. All are unacceptable violations of human rights. Together they form a huge obstacle to gender equality and genuine human progress.”

My view is that psychological abuse, intimidation and harassment are as equally unacceptable as physical violence. In fact they may in some cases be worse. I believe there is a huge opening for scholarly research into the effects of the psychological abuse of women and of the psychological effects of gender inequality on women and on men.

I would like to expand the definition of gender based violence. Maternal mortality, dying in the process of giving birth, is the ultimate gender based violence. This should not happen in the 21st century. It is just a question of priorities.

Gender inequality where the male model is preferred to the female is a form of violence. To hazard a guess I would say that perhaps sixty-five percent of pro-creating couples would prefer a boy baby at least for the first born. Is this psychological preference a form of gender-based violence? Yes, because when the girl baby appears, at least at first, the parents have a feeling of let-down. At some level, this must have an effect on the baby. And then think of the psychological and cultural ambiance that has made both parents prefer the son first.

We all know that there are 1 billion hungry people in the world today. Joan Holmes, the former head of The Hunger Project has stated: “In much of the developing world, a little girl eats last and least. She is up to three times more likely than boys to suffer malnutrition.”

Now, I ask you, isn’t this gender-based violence?

With the world’s present balance of decision making power, if men could get pregnant, family planning would be universally available and abortion would be legal and safe everywhere. The present system is violence personified.

I have never in my life been aware of militant pro-lifers admonishing men to prevent abortion by the most obvious means. Men share equal responsibility with women for abortions that result from “not wanting a baby at this time.” Only women are screamed at, prosecuted, prayed for, and blamed. It was Eve who ate the apple. Only she is the embodiment of sin.

There is so much more to this article–usually it is easy to pick out an excerpt that really stands out–that was not the case here, the whole article, particularly Jane’s conclusions, difficult as they are to read in their truth-telling, is a must read.

As Say No-Unite points out, the first step to ending violence against women is ending the silence and speaking out. In that spirit at their kind invitation we share this compelling look at the trafficking of women and girls in Nepal, the first in a series of videos about violence against women throughout the world.

While discussing Yemen in connection with terrorism is a hot ticket these days, I thought it might be worth taking a look at the other terrorism, violence against women in Yemen. As it always is, this sort of terrorism is not considered as newsworthy as the elusive Al Queda kind, but it is very real and very damaging. Addressing it (and by this, I do not mean using it as an excuse to blow up the country) would go a long way in eradicating the kind that sends men onto planes hiding explosives in their crotch. Here is a rare look at the personal terrorism that confronts women in Yemen.

Via Yemen Today Magazine:

Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights’ Chairperson, Amal al-Basha, spoke about hostility cases happening in Sa’adah from al-Houthies against innocent women and children at the first training workshop on “Mechanisms of Legal Protection to Eliminate Violence against Women and Children.” The workshop was held for 3 days last week in Sana’a. The workshop was organized by the Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights with the cooperation with the Netherlands government and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. It’s part of the forum’s recent program “Legal Protection Program for Women and Children Victims of Violence.”…

…“80% of the refugees in the world are women and children and what’s happening in Sa’adah is a major part of that. There are reports on how violently women and children are being treated in the north, but no one is doing anything. Humanitarian Laws should be immediately implemented. However, the government must protect the innocent civilians from any kind of violence,” said al-Basha

She also added that al-Houthies acts of violence against the innocent civilians embodied their bitter sense of defeat. The workshop consisted of 36 trainees from several different social institutions, governmental institutions and activists. They initiated a better understanding in making more efficient solutions to the current issues women and children face. They had the training course to be prospective trainers in other cities in the future. This workshop is the first one in a series of coming workshops that will be held in the coming days in other cities as well…

…At the end of the workshop, Amal al-Basha, the trainer Shmissa Riyaha and the trainer Ishraq al-Maqtary handed the trainees certifications. “The workshop’s main objective is establishing a collective awareness, through activists and concerned people, towards stopping discrimination against women and violence against women and children,” said Huda Ga’afer, the workshop’s coordinator.

Child marriage is also a significant problem in Yemen:

Nujoud al-Ahdal, the former child bride that made headlines back in 2008 for demanding a divorce from her 30-year-old ex-husband, is leading the fight to help 12-year-old Sally al-Sabahi divorce her 21-year old husband. Nujoud al-Ahdal announced that she will be donating YR 100,000 for this cause.

Nujoud expressed sadness about the fact that no efforts were made to help Sally divorce her husband. Nujoud expects to receive compensation from the French publishing company that published her biography and the challenges she faced during her early marriage and divorce. The money she is donating will make up half of the YR 200,000 dowry the husband paid for the girl, reimbursement for her freedom.

Sally intends to file for divorce from her husband, but she said her parents are too poor to pay back the YR 200,000 dowry to her husband.

Sally got married to her husband 2 years ago. “I felt happy that I would get married and have new dresses and toys to play with and have money; however, I was surprised when my husband asked me to sleep with him on the evening after the wedding party. I told him that was shameful,” she said.\

Her husband raped her because he believed that his wife should obey him. He believed he had legal rights to have non-restricted intercourse with his wife, no matter her age…

…Nujoud said that it brings shame on the whole society to keep silent about rape. “Please free Sally from this unfair marriage and let her go back to play with her friends, brothers and sisters,” pleaded Sally.

“We are not toys. We are children,” said Nujoud.

See also this piece on child marriage and other difficulties faced by girls in Yemen.

Note: I have used single quote marks around the word ‘Other’ very intentionally to call out the fact that in order to abuse someone, or kill someone, it is necessary to consider them as different and less worthy than yourself. This is a very key point in talking about violence and something that I will be focusing on in more depth in the near future.

Vivirlatino has a brilliant piece by La Macha deconstructing how nationalism trumps violence against women when it comes to reporting on violence against women in immigrant communities. She writes,

(T)his is what happens when people (more than likely men, although the author of that article was a woman), decide that “citizenship” and “questions of citizenship” are more important than understanding and dealing with violence against women. The women who are violated are completely erased from the story or become little more than the vessels that carry the more important story of “how are we going to catch us some alienz?”

Point taken and it is valid not only within our borders but also in our foreign policy. Time and time again it has been made all too clear that the lives of Afghan and Iraqi women as well as women in our own military count far less than our perceived national interest. Please read the entire piece, it is a chilling tale.

Feminist Peace Network

Playing The Damsels In Distress Card

Jane Roberts–Expanding The Definition Of Gender Based Violence

Say No-Unite–End The Silence, End The Violence

Violence Against Women In Yemen–The ‘Other’ Terrorism

How Nationalism Trumps The Safety Of Women

Recent Posts

Pages

Meta

Archives

Follow FPN

Translate this Page

Friends