Day 4 16days Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a pervasive and global
violation of human rights where this crime is often
hidden because of the disgrace, dishonour, and shame perpetrated upon the
victim. Women remain silent and decide not to report this crime because the
perpetrator is often their domestic partner.
Many women and girls who are raped are forced to leave home,
because of the perceived shame for their families. Displaced, without support
networks and with no access to protection or livelihoods, many are forced into
prostitution.
Now here are some beliefs that we need to stamp out: justifying
violence against women based on the notion that it is legitimate for a man to
use violence against a woman; excuse violence by attributing it to external
factors such as stress or proposing that men cannot be held fully responsible
for violent behaviour for example, because of anger or sexual urges and also
trivialise the impact of violence, based on the view that the impacts of
violence are not serious or are not sufficiently serious to warrant action by
women themselves.
In addition to these, community or public agencies minimise
violence by denying its seriousness, denying that it occurs or denying that
certain behaviours are indeed violence at all; and shifting blame for the
violence from the perpetrator to the victim or hold women at least partially
responsible for their victimisation or for preventing victimisation.
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