VIOLENCE
against
WOMEN:
ITS SCOPE
AND
Women’s Ministries Department
General Conference of the
Seventh-day Adventists
RELEVAN
CE FOR
THE
I -INTRODUCTION
“So I take a blanket and I spend the night
with my children out in the cold because
he is hitting me too much and I have to
take the kids to stop him hitting them too. I
would go up the mountain, and sleep there
all night. I’ve done that more than ten
times.” Woman interviewed in Peru
• Gender-based violence is a global public
health, economic development and human
rights problem of epidemic proportions
• Approximately one in three of the world’s
women will experience gender-related
violence in her lifetime, with rates reaching
70 percent in some countries.
“…violence against women"
means any act of genderbased violence that results in,
or is likely to result in, physical,
sexual or psychological harm
or suffering to women,
including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in public or in private
life.” United Nations’ General
Assembly Declaration of the Elimination of
Violence against Women (resolution 48/104 of
December 1993
II. BACK TO BASICS: A FOUNDATION
• “Surely you know that you are God’s
temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you!
God will destroy anyone who destroys
God’s temple. For Gods’ temple is holy, and
you yourselves are his temple.” 1 Cor. 3:16, 17
(TEV)
III. RECOGNIZING VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN
• Violence against women
jeopardizes women’s lives, bodies,
psychological integrity and freedom
and has been called the “the most
pervasive yet least recognized human
rights abuse in the world.”
Activity 1: Definition of Violence
Against Women
• What does the phrase “violence
against women” mean to you?
• What acts do you consider to be
“violence against women”?
A. EXPANDED
• The definition for violence
against women is
amplified in article 2 of the
United Nations Declaration,
which identifies three areas
in which violence commonly
takes place:
1. In the FAMILY
• Physical, sexual and psychological
violence that occurs in the family,
including battering; sexual abuse of
female children in the household;
dowry-related violence; marital rape;
female genital mutilation and other
traditional practices harmful to
women; non-spousal violence; and
violence related to exploitation;
2. Within the COMMUNITY
• Physical, sexual and psychological
violence that occurs within the
general community, including rape;
sexual abuse; sexual harassment and
intimidation at work, in educational
institutions and elsewhere; trafficking in
women; and forced prostitution;
3. Perpetrated or condoned
by THE STATE
• Physical, sexual and psychological
violence perpetrated or condoned
by the State, wherever it occurs.
B. THE PROBLEM
• Women often suffer harm
which is either unique to
their gender, such as female
genital mutilation or forced nonchoice abortion, or which is
more commonly inflicted upon
women than men, such as rape
or domestic violence.
• Women may also suffer harm solely or
exclusively because they are women, i.e.
as a result of their gender, such as the
policies of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
• Women often suffer harm at the hands
of private individuals, such as family
members who threaten them with honor
killings, or abusive spouses who batter
them.
IV. KINDS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN
We can place various types of violence
against women in three main
categories. We will list them and
then talk briefly about each one.
•
A. Violence Against Women in
the Family Setting
•
•
•
•
•
Domestic violence
Traditional practices
Female genital mutilation
Son preference
Dowry-related violence and early
marriage
1. Domestic violence
• For women aged 15 to 44
years, violence is a major
cause of death and disability.
• Studies show that between
one quarter and one half of
all women in the world have
been abused by intimate
partners. Worldwide, 4070% of all female murder
victims are killed by an
intimate partner.
2. Traditional practices
• In many countries, women fall
victim to traditional practices
that violate their human rights.
• These violations include female
genital mutilation or cutting
(FGM), dowry murder, so-called
“honour killings,” and early
marriage.
3. Female genital
mutilation
• According to the World
Health Organization, 85
million to 115 million
girls and women in the
population have
undergone some form of
female genital
mutilation and suffer
from its adverse health
effects.
• Every year an estimated 2 million young
girls undergo this procedure. Most live
in Africa and Asia—but an increasing
number can be found among immigrant
and refugee families in Western Europe
and North America..
• It is estimated that more than 130
million girls and women alive today have
undergone FGM, mainly in Africa and
some Middle Eastern countries, and two
million girls a year are at risk of
mutilation.
4. Son preference
• Son preference is the
consistent favoring of male
children, affects women in
many countries, particularly
in Asia. Its consequences
can be anything from foetal
or female infanticide to
neglect of the girl child over
her brother.
• In China and India, some women choose
to terminate their pregnancies when
expecting daughters but carry their
pregnancies to term when expecting
sons.
• Indian gender-detection clinics drew
protests from women's groups after the
appearance of advertisements suggesting
that it was better to spend $38 now to
terminate a female foetus than $3,800
later on her dowry.
5. Dowry-related
violence and early
marriage
• In some countries, weddings are
preceded by the payment of an
agreed-upon dowry by the
bride's family. Failure to pay the
dowry can lead to violence
• In Bangladesh, a bride whose dowry was
deemed too small was disfigured after
her husband threw acid on her face.
• Small community studies have also
indicated that dowry demands have
played an important role in women
being burned to death and in deaths of
women being labeled suicides.
• In India, an average of five women a
day are burned in dowry-related
disputes—and many more cases are
never reported.
B. Violence Against Women in
the Community
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rape
Sexual assault within marriage
Sexual harassment
Prostitution and trafficking
Pornography
Mistreatment of women migrant
workers
1. Rape
• Rape can occur anywhere,
even in the family, where it
can take the form of marital
rape or incest.
• It occurs in the community,
where a woman can fall prey
to any abuser.
• It also occurs in situations of
armed conflict and in refugee
camps.
• A report of seven different countries
found that more than 60% of sexual
assault victims know their attackers.
• In South Africa, a sex crime happens
every twenty seconds.
• In some countries, up to one-third of
adolescent girls report forced sexual
initiation.
• In the United States, national statistics
indicate that a woman is raped every six
minutes.
2. Sexual assault within
marriage
• Sexual assault within marriage is
included under this category
because it is the community
attitudes prevalent in many
areas—attitudes held by law
enforcement, local leaders,
neighbors, and even church
leadership—which allow this type
of violence to go unpunished
3. Sexual harassment
• Sexual harassment in the
workplace is a growing
concern for women.
Employers abuse their
authority to seek sexual
favours from their female coworkers or subordinates,
sometimes promising
promotions or other forms of
career advancement.
4. Prostitution and
trafficking
• Many women are forced into
prostitution either by their
parents, husbands or
boyfriends—or as a result of
the difficult economic and
social conditions in which
they find themselves.
• An estimated two million women are
caught each year in the worldwide sex
industry while countless children and
other women are forced into low-wage
jobs.
• In Thailand, prostitutes who complain
to the police are often arrested and
sent back to the brothels upon
payment of a fine.
• More than 100,000 women are
trafficked annually in South Asia.
5. Pornography
• Another concern highlighted
is pornography, which
represents a form of violence
against women that
"glamorizes the degradation
and maltreatment of women
and asserts their subordinate
function as mere receptacles
for male lust."
• According to comScore Media Metrix,
there were 63.4 million unique visitors to
adult websites in December of 2005,
reaching 37.2% of the Internet audience.
• According to the Florida Family
Association, PornCrawler, their
specialized software program, identified
20 U.S. companies that accounted for
more than 70 percent of 297 million porn
links on the Internet.
6. Violence against women
migrant workers
• The migrant workers themselves
fare badly, and sometimes
tragically. Many become virtual
slaves, subject to abuse and rape
by their employers.
• In the Middle East and Persian
Gulf region, there are an
estimated 1.2 million women,
mainly Asians, who are employed
as domestic servants.
C. Violence perpetrated or
condoned by States
Examples include:
• Custodial violence against women
• Violence against women in situations of
armed conflict
• Violence against refugee and displaced
women
1. Custodial violence
against women
• Violence against women
by the very people who
are supposed to protect
them—members of the
law enforcement and
criminal justice systems—
is widespread.
2. Violence against
women in situations of
armed conflict
• Rape has been widely used
as a weapon of war
whenever armed conflicts
arise between different
parties. It has been used all
over the world: in Chiapas,
Mexico, in Rwanda, in
Kuwait, in Haiti, in Colombia.
3. Violence against
refugee and displaced
women
• Women and children form the
great majority of refugee
populations all over the world
and are especially vulnerable to
violence and exploitation. In
refugee camps, they are raped
and abused by military and
immigration personnel, bandit
groups, male refugees and rival
ethnic groups.
V. GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND
THE CHURCH
• Many denominations and communities of
faith recognize the urgent need to end
the violence against women and to
bring about justice.
A. SPEAKING OUT
• Many have created, or support, organizations
working to create awareness, to educate the
public, and to find ways to stop the violence.
• The Seventh-day Adventist Church is also
speaking out about violence against women.
We recognize that as believers in a heavenly
Father, we must become agents of change,
helping to end the evils of abuse and genderbased violence—both in society and within
the church itself.
B. Abuse within the Flock
The importance of this topic was underscored by Jan
Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world
church. Paulsen emphasized that “violence of any kind
in the church” is unacceptable: “We need to develop a
culture of kindness, care, consideration, [and] nonabuse….[It] is not just physical; mental [emotional]
abuse can be just as bad.” (“Culture of Kindness Can
Help Stop…,” Adventist World-NAD, August 2007, pp. 6-7)
• As a church, we must find ways to change
attitudes and traditions that condone or
excuse abuse. We must consciously work
to eliminate the attitudes as well as the
practices.
VI. GLOBAL AND LOCAL
• The meaning of gender and sexuality and
the balance of power between women
and men at all levels of society must be
reviewed. Combating violence against
women requires challenging the way that
gender roles and power relations are
articulated in society.
A. THINKING GLOBALLY
• Combating violence against women
requires challenging the way that gender roles
and power relations are articulated in society.
Activity 2: Violence against Women
as a Human Rights Violation
• What definition of the term
“violence against women” is given in
the UN statement?
• What human rights are violated by
violence against women?
• What parts of these documents are
most relevant to our local
community?
B. THINKING LOCALLY
• If there is to be global
change, we must confront
the problems locally. The
impact we can make locally
can have an influence
globally, but change must
begin locally. Each of us must
realize “I can be a change
agent. I can make a
difference.”
Activity 3: Here and Now
• It is important to raise
awareness of global aspects of
gender-based violence. It is
also important to look at
problems of abuse and violence
which are close to us. What are
the causes, the needs, the
obstacles in my area?
VII. ACTION
• During this presentation, we have
heard about many types of gender
violence. We recognize the harm such
abuse does—to our families, our
community, and our society. Together,
we can find ways to address some
issues most relevant to our community
or society. Let’s list some of your ideas.
A. WHAT CAN I DO?
• Educate ourselves about the gender-based
violence most prevalent in our community.
• Evaluate our culture and traditions..
• Question the beliefs and traditions that
undergird gender violence and
discrimination.
• Support an organization working to
eradicate gender-based violence such as sex
trafficking, domestic violence, and
prostitution.
• Donate regularly or hold a fundraiser.
• Encourage local law enforcement
agencies to receive specialized training
for dealing with domestic abuse, and to
devote resources to prevention of
gender-based violence.
• Pray for victims of abuse, gender-based
violence, and exploitation. Pray for a
change in the hearts of their abusers.
• Host a weekly prayer group or book study
group on some aspect of gender-based
violence
• Volunteer my time and talents to a group
or ministry serving victims of violence or
abuse.
B. WHAT CAN MY LOCAL
CHURCH DO?
• As a community of believers who
recognize the value God places on each
person, we have an opportunity to work
as Christ did, to free the captives, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed. Let
us take a little time to answer the
question, “What can my local church do
to help prevent gender violence and to
help victims heal?
• One small but vital principle the church must
apply is that of confidentiality.
• Recognize that gender-based violence is a
tremendous evil, that it is never acceptable
and cannot be condoned.
• Compile complete, up-to-date information
about all resources in your community
available to victims of any type of genderbased violence.
• Collect funds and provide your church leaders
with educational materials on gender
violence.
• Create a church lending library of materials
on gender-based violence issues relevant to
your community .
• Organize a group to assess the needs in the
local community.
• Create one or more “safe houses” where
abuse victims can find emergency shelter.
• Present sermons and workshops to the
congregation and the community on issues of
gender-based violence relevant to your
community.
• Examine church policies and practices to be
sure none foster or encourage hurtful or
discriminatory attitudes towards women.
• Provide ongoing support to a local women’s
shelter or other organization benefitting
victims of gender-based violence.
• Care for hurting people in our church. Be nonjudgmental. Develop support groups.
• Help raise awareness. Share materials about
gender-based violence with your community.
VIII. CONCLUSION
• During this seminar we have become
more aware of the tremendous problem
of gender-based violence. Believing that
we must indeed act justly, love mercy and
walk humbly with God, we each have an
opportunity to find a way to commit
ourselves to making a difference.
More Information
General Conference
Women’s Ministries Department
http://adventistwomensministries.org