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Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts - WEMC

http://www.wemc.com.hk/web/culture_and_VAW.htm

 

‘Culture’, Women, Violence

No Excuses for Violence Against Women!

 

 

Violence against women is condemned by the international community as a violation of women’s basic human rights, regardless of whether such violence is perpetrated by the State or by family members, whether in public or private spheres. But despite the international consensus on the need to end violence against women, violence against women persists in many societies. A key reason for this persistence is the misuse of ‘culture’ to justify violence against women. Through this misuse of ‘culture’, violence against women is legitimised and thereby perpetuated.

 

The Research Program Consortium on ‘Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts’ (WEMC) sees violence against women as a mechanism of control used by patriarchal forces to disempower women. The use of ‘culture’ to excuse violence against women is part of these processes of control and disempowerment. Various forms of violence against women studied by WEMC include:
 

  • State sanctioned violence legalised as punishment (e.g. Hudood Ordinances in Pakistan and stoning to death in Iran)
  • Family laws that undermine women’s rights and may result in or promote acts of interpersonal violence (e.g. in Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia)
  • Organised rape as a weapon of war in armed conflicts between the State and ethno-nationalist separatists (e.g. in Indonesia)
  • Violence inflicted by para-State actors, such as Islamist ‘sharia police’ who impose ‘curfews’ and whippings (in Indonesia) and politico-religious groups (in Pakistan) who have attacked female teachers and students for failing to comply with their new unilaterally imposed dress codes, have bombed and burnt down girls’ schools, and encouraged the beheading of women not attired according to their new rules
  • The curtailing of women’s physical and social mobility by threatened or actual violence

These and other forms of gender-based violence make it dangerous for women to exercise agency as autonomous persons. Nevertheless, despite such risks, women in diverse contexts have long negotiated for their rights through indigenous strategies, contrary to spurious claims that women’s empowerment is alien and illegitimate. Most, however, have struggled alone, their strategies largely undocumented, their endeavours muted by violence justified as ‘tradition’ or ‘religion’.

 

WEMC documents women’s choices, discourses and strategies to assert their rights in the face of violence used as a mechanism of control in China, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and cross-border contexts. As a mechanism, violence is not only inter-personal, but systemic and structural. We examine the potential of legal, political and social systems to be either obstructive or supportive. We also analyse how women themselves access and use resources that can protect them from violence. WEMC explores whether alternative mechanisms of redress exist and whether these reinforce or reduce gender-based violence. In Indonesia and elsewhere, we examine tensions between secular laws and interpretations rendered by local Sharia courts and institutions. In Pakistan, we explore government responses to inter-personal violence and how these may be made more effective. Across all sites, we focus on how women make empowering choices in the face of disempowering forces.

 

WEMC’s Strategy Paper Rejecting ‘cultural; justifications for violence against women is intended as a contribution to global efforts to end violence against women. This Paper focuses on how to reject ‘cultural’ justifications for violence against women, discussing two ways of doing this:

 

1.

By strategizing around key opportunities that have emerged in the UN system

2.

By countering ‘cultural’ justifications for violence against women at micro, meso and macro levels





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