Video: End Violence Against Women Around the World

Today, November 25th is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and through videos, many people and organizations around the world are expressing their need to end the violence as well as the efforts they are undertaking to ensure that women have a safer world to live in.

Words about violence must break SILENCE, by circo de invierno

Words about violence must break SILENCE

UNIFEM, in the Say No to Violence channel on YouTube has already documented some of the actions being taken around the world to end gender violence. This first video shows the Ngara Girls High School in Nairobi, Kenya, where young girls are being taught to say No to Violence, to stand up for their rights and also how to deal with rape, assault, harassment and other forms of gender violence:

Also in Kenya, the Kenyatta National Hospital has a Gender Violence Recovery Center, where women and their children can go and receive care in cases of violence against them. In this next video, they tell of their experience running the center, the context they are in, and women who have been victims of gender violence speak out:

In Peru, the Flora Tristan organization is having a protest and mass gathering for another aspect they believe is related to gender violence: the denial of free access to birth control methods and the new law that determined that the day after pill (emergency contraception) wouldn't be distributed free of cost. They will be doing an educational campaign in a park in Lima and giving out information about birth control, also handing out day after pills and birth control packets as a symbolic protest:

In the context of all Latin America and the Caribbean, UN-INSTRAW launches this video as part of an awareness campaign :

Latinoamérica y el Caribe es un lugar peligroso para las mujeres. Más de 50 por ciento de las mujeres de la región han sido objetos de agresiones. En la República Dominicana, por ejemplo, 1,453 mujeres fueron asesinadas entre los años 2000 y 2008. En el marco del Día Internacional para la Eliminación de la Violencia Contra la Mujer, UN-INSTRAW lanza un nuevo video sobre la seguridad de las mujeres latinas y caribeñas.

Latin America and the Caribbean is a dangerous place for women. More than 50 per cent of the women in the region have been subject to agression. In the Dominican Republic, for examples, 1 453 women were murdered between the years 2000 and 2008. In the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, UN-INSTRAW launches a new video about the security of Latin and Caribbean women.

In Spain, women participated in the 5th Self-Defense seminar against gender violence, where they are taught how to protect themselves in case they face a dangerous situation. Training is geared towards enabling them to disable their aggressor momentarily so they can run away from danger.

And from Chile, Hip Hop Artist COFLA has made a song titled Femicide. Whereas hip-hop lyrics are often thought to promote violence against women, this artist has put out a song condemning how men go from promises of love and protection to violence, aggression and even murder:

Have there been similar efforts and activities in your hometown or country? Please let us know in the comments how your community is moving towards ending violence against women!

8 comments

  • Wonderful post Juliana! It is inspiring to see what people are doing around the world to end violence.

  • I believe NOTHING much will change as far as Violence is concerned until Gender and Race are removed from the debate.

    ALL that I have seen in the Media in New Zealand simply wants to end all violence toward Women.

    What about Womes Violence toward Children and Men

    What about Bureaucrat Violence?

    What about ALL forms of Violence being adressed

    Then they would have my support

    Onward – Together – Jim

  • M.V.Sankaran

    By watching the videos posted on this blog, one does get a glimpse of the measures being taken to end violence against women in some parts of the world. In my country, India too, there is considerable violence against women even though the official statistics compiled and published there may not give a realistic picture of the same. The problem is deep rooted there because it is a predominantly patriarchal society and women therein are treated like chattel and are identified with the father when still a maiden, the husband upon marriage and the son upon widowhood later on. There is a lot of honor killing for transcending the caste and religious barriers when they marry for love (where social mingling is allowed to take place at all for generally there is segregation of the sexes otherwise) and much cruelty meted out to them for not bringing in sufficient ‘dowry’ (monetary and other valuable gifts given at the time of their marriage) and yes, sexual harassment at the place of education, work and within the family too. Slowly, but gradually, the higher education and emancipation of women are being emphasized, but as yet they are mostly an urban phenomena and in the rural areas, and the city slums, the women still lag behind culturally and treated like a herd of domesticated animals. It is a strange mixture of modern, medieval and even primitive notions that exist today when it comes to the aspect of liberation of women, not just politically (through a system of democracy based on adult franchise – inherited from the British), economically (through compulsory education and reservation of seats and jobs for women) and socially (through equality before law and equal protection of the laws), but also, culturally (through respect for womanhood and the inviolability of their person, property or reputation). Bloggers on the internet are indeed doing their bit to narrow down the cultural disparities, just the same as other public media, like books, journals, the press, the television and the movies. However, more is needed to be done, particularly, in the many languages of the world and not just in the dominant ones, in order to reach more and more people of the world.

  • […] غیر دولتی یا دولتی آن را دارند ، آن لاین در سایتی مشابه این سوگند خوردند که هیچگاه دست روی زنی بلند نکنند و بیست و […]

  • Style88

    Unfortunately, there are many studies published that paint women as helpless, pitiful victims and men as cruel, neolithic aggressors. Many of these studies are from clearly political organizations with purely political motives, and are only taken seriously by young children and the simple-minded.
    With that in mind, we must consider the broader issue of violence against men.

    “Women are more likely than men to stalk, attack and psychologically abuse their partners, according to a University of Florida study that finds college women have a new view of the dating scene.”
    http://news.ufl.edu/2006/07/13/women-attackers/

    Additionally, men are more likely to be victims of any violent crime except sexual misconduct. That being said, I’d take rape over murder any day of the week. While men are also more likely to be the perpetrators, do we say, “black men are more likely to commit crime, that makes them the oppressors?”

    It is sad and unfortunate when men are painted as not the victims but rather the aggressors and only the aggressors in domestic violence. Hopefully this will help to clear things up.

    Perhaps it is this sort of behavior that converted Warren Farrell, former director of NOW, to leave the organization and reveal that men are, if anything, the disposable sex.

    • KJ

      It is quite clear to me that you, Sir, are an abuser! Your carelessly constructed words might help you feel justified in your past and present abusive behaviour towards women, but I am not fooled.

  • Well said – Style88 – Onward – Together – JimBWarrior

Cancel this reply

Join the conversation -> Style88

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.