Violence against women Realised by : Monya Bensaleh

Introduction. I-Women between yesterday and today : 1- The situation of women before. 2- The situation of women now. II-Major women’s prolems : 1-Discrimination : 2- Sexual harassment : 3-Violence : III-Types of violence : IV - Statistics :

Introduction : Around the world at least one woman in every three has been beaten, forced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Every year, violence at home and in the community devastates the lives of millions of women. Violence against women is rooted in a global culture of discrimination which denies women equal rights with men and which legitimizes the appropriation of women's bodies for individual gratification or political ends.

I-Women between yesterday and today : 1- The situation of women before : Prior to Islam, a woman’s status in the sight of all nations of the World was nothing more than the value of household goods. They were treated like animals. They were bought and sold. They had no choice in the matter of marriage; they had to silently accept the highest bidder.

They never inherited, even from their close relatives. In fact, they themselves would become an item of distribution just like any other commodity of inheritance in a descendant’s estate. Women were regarded merely as properties and possessions of men. Even in the so-called modern European countries they were not even regarded as human beings.

2- The situation of women now : Today, women are considered to have equal rights; but, is it really true? Old stereotypes still exist in many things. Women have worked hard for the rights that exist. They have made huge strides in changing the way society looks at them from the past. In the past, women were to stay at home, take care of the housework, the cooking, the baking, the laundry, and teach the children by raising them with chores, discipline, and help with their homework.

Many women work outside the house. With today's economic status, most families need two paychecks to make ends meet. Some women have a college degree and want to put it to use or continue in their careers. Although family may be important to them, self-improvement and being able to help provide for the family may be of a concern.

II-Major women’s prolems: 1-Discrimination : Gender equality is essential for the achievement of human rights for all. Yet discriminatory laws against women persist in every corner of the globe and new discriminatory laws are enacted. In all legal traditions many laws continue to institutionalize second class status for women and girls with regard to nationality and citizenship, health, education, marital rights, employment rights, parental rights, inheritance and property rights.

2- Sexual harassment : Sexual harassment is a violation of women's human rights and a prohibited form of violence against women in many countries. Sexually harassing conduct causes devastating physical and psychological injuries to a large percentage of women in workplaces around the world.

3- Mistreatment : Harassment directed against women in the workplace by their supervisors, fellow employees, or third parties interferes with the integration of women in the workforce, reinforces the subordination of women to men in society, violates women's dignity and creates a health and safety hazard at work.

Women's advocates around the world work to further women’s right to be free from sexual harassment. Critical to these efforts to combat sexual harassment has been the growing recognition of sexual harassment as a form of violence against women which violates women's human rights. States are obligated under international law to take effective steps to protect women from violence and to hold harassers and/or their employers accountable for sexual harassment in the workplace.

3-Violence : “Violence against women” is understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life

III-Types of violence : 1-Rape: Rape is a type of sexual assault, usually involving sexual intercourse. Rape is usually perpetrated by men against boys, women and girls. women are usually assaulted more often than boys and girls and usually all by someone they know or maybe not.

2-Domestic violence Women are more likely to be victimized by someone that they are intimate with, commonly called "intimate partner violence" or (IPV). Instances of IPV tend not to be reported to police and thus many experts believe that the true magnitude of the problem is hard to estimate. Women are much more likely than men to be murdered by an intimate partner.

3- Forced marriage A forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both of the parties are married against their will. Forced marriages are common in South Asia, Middle East and Africa. The customs of bride price and dowry, that exist in many parts of the world, contribute to this practice. A forced marriage is also often the result of a dispute between families, where the dispute is 'resolved' by giving a female from one family to the other

4-Force-feeding: In some countries, notably Mauritania, young girls are forcibly fattened to prepare them for marriage because obesity is seen as desirable. This practice of force-feeding is known as leblouh or gavage

IV - Statistics : Internationally, the incidence of rapes recorded by the police during 2008 varied between 0.1 in Egypt per 100,000 people and 91.6 per 100,000 people in Lesotho with 4.9 per 100,000 people in Lithuania as the median. According to the American Medical Association (1995), sexual violence, and rape in particular, is considered the most underreported violent crime

In the United States, in 2005, 1181 women, in comparison with 329 men, were killed by their intimate partners. In England and Wales about 100 women are killed by partners or former partners each year while 21 men were killed in In 2008, in France, 156 women in comparison with 27 men were killed by their intimate partner.

Between 15 and 76 percent of women are targeted for physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the available country data. Most of this violence takes place within intimate relationships, with many women (ranging from 9 to 70 percent) reporting their husbands or partners as the perpetrator. Across the 28 States of the European Union, a little over one in five women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a partner.

-Conclusion : Violence against women is a social problem that stops the developement of the society. So we have to start changing people’s mentality to save the world from the consequences of this mistreatement.

Thank You Source images: internet