The thinking would be that raising his voice to cry for help may turn his situation to object of damaging gossips and ridicule. With such mentality pervading, it becomes difficult for victims to go public on their ordeals or make reports to official authorities Gathogo, In some cases, victims overcome or defy the socio-cultural and psychological odds to approach official authorities.
Unfortunately, victims in such situations tend to encounter insensitive reactions even from official quarters Young, As one source presents the typical scenario,.
From the moment the victims start narrating that they were beaten up by their spouse, they tend to get discouraged by the attitude of some officials. Naturally, unsympathetic attitudes of officials tend to dampen the morale of aggrieved victims as well as propel others to forlornly keep their experiences private rather than risking getting more salts rubbed on their wounds with another level of mockery from officials who ought to alleviate their burdens.
Embedded in the official attitudes is another inhibiting factor that tends to keep male victims silent—the fear of not being believed if they publicise their experience of domestic violence Young, The unsympathetic official attitudes, perhaps, indicates an official mind-set that that women-on-men domestic violence is not an issue of serious concern; by extension this may have accounted for non-provision of social amenities like refuge homes or shelters to meet the temporary needs of male victims for whom their homes have become hostile territories Carroll, ; Young, In some contexts, economic reasons may account for the silence of male victims of domestic violence.
Due to circumstances, some men may be dependent on wives for their sustenance and that of the family as whole. Where such men suffer abuses, the fear of losing economic lifelines through divorce or abandonment may compel such men to suffer in silence Gathogo, Along same line, the possibility of other forms of suffering or threat of same, or other considerations, may compel male victims to remain silent or accommodate the abuses.
For example, the an abusive wife threatened the abused husband that she had brothers involved in organised crime With that hanging threat, she subjected the man to fifteen months of abuse. In some situations religion too may keep the victims from speaking out. Rather than taking steps to address the problem, the victims may opt to resist the devil and bear the suffering with prayers and faith trusting that the siege will lift at some time.
Reference to precedents of revered religious figures who had victoriously fought battles of faith in the past can be good consolation or pointer to such people. To recap, the perception and narrative on domestic violence is that men are the culprits and women are the victims. Consequently, in one respect, it is unexpected that women would have the physical or other capacity to inflict violence on men, based on typical gender differences in size and strength.
Even, with reports of women-on-men violence, the perception remains that such attacks would have justification in that the violence-dispensing women must have been pushed to the wall. In essence, in the domestic violence narrative, men encounter prejudices in different ramifications.
It is trite that over the ages, in comparison with men, women across the world have suffered disadvantages and deprivations in different dimensions Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, In that light, pursuit of the emancipation of women and safeguarding of their human rights is much desirable and noble. Generally, there have some notable special developments in the area of safeguarding the interests and rights of women. ORG, In more expressly engaging the issue of violence against women, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women was the first international instrument explicitly addressing violence against women, providing a framework for national and international action UNWOMEN. Apparently, in presenting the multidimensional impact of violence against women and need to control it, the Conference drew links between violence against women and reproductive health and rights UNWOMEN. These earlier foundations set the tone for the different declarations and injunctions on the rights of women and issues affecting women adopted at the widely publicised and well attended Fourth United Nations International Conference on Women in , held in Beijing, China Beijing Conference.
Among others, in aspects touching on violence against women, the Beijing Platform for Action identifies specific actions which governments should take to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Beyond Beijing and the other earlier noted instruments and actions, there have been other international drives on the protection of women against violence. This is a legally binding regional instrument on violence against women and girls. Though the main focus was reproductive health, its scope and aspiration included the elimination of harmful practices and sexual violence.
Among others, the Protocol calls for the adoption and implementation of measures to: 1 protect women from all forms of violence whether sexual or verbal, and whether in public or private, 2 generally to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women 3 eradicate elements and stereotypes in traditional and cultural beliefs, which legitimize and exacerbate violence against women Njoroge, By and large, international efforts in protecting women against violence have been a continuing process.
As an illustration of the continuity, in , at the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, leaders pledged to ramp up efforts to fully implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, including ending all forms of violence and harmful practices against women and girls, UNWOMEN. International days are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity; the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool United Nations, Typically, celebration of International days entail invitations to governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the pertinent problem on that day World Health Organisation, The effect of the designation of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is that at least for several days every year the issue of violence against women will be receiving robust and multidimensional attention at different fora across the world.
At domestic level too, there have been promulgations of diverse statutes specifically designed to address violence or some other issues affecting women.
With Nigeria as illustration, some examples of such statutes are:. While some of the noted statutes may not bear citations that specifically denote specific application to women, it can be readily inferred or understood that women constitute the main or intended focus of protection.
From preceding discussions, it is manifest that from the perspectives of society and law, women are primarily deemed the victims of domestic violence who deserve protection from men as perpetrators of the violence. As shown in the preceding section, International and National laws have equally manifested great bias in the attention given to protecting women against violence in comparison with the male gender.
This should not be surprising with the position of the United Nations that violence against women flows from unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and hindering women from appropriate advancement Ojigho, With men-on-women domestic violence predominating in the gender violence narratives, and likely to continue dominating, the voices and fate of male victims of domestic violence stand muffled and shrouded in the slanted terrain of discourse.
Perceptibly, men are the strong ones who need no socio-legal protection as they can take care of themselves, or are the people from whom women need to be protected. Quite true, statistics and reports reflect that women are more at the receiving end of domestic violence, or that domestic violence affects women more than men Oloyede ; World Health Organisation, ; United Nations, However, the reality is that, across the world, a proportion of women perpetrate domestic violence on men and there are men who suffer spousal domestic violence, even if not many.
The global community, over the years, has engaged the protection of the interests and rights of minorities or marginalised people United Nations, Along that line, they deserve attention along the level available for female victims of domestic violence under national and international laws.
It is trite that there are salient provisions under generally applicable national laws to address gender violence; and women who inflicted violence on spouses or partners have been sanctioned under such laws Carroll, Whatever may be the practical or academic platform for the above reasoning, in effect, it simply begs the issue.
The same legal regimes for sanctioning and which seemingly suffice to protect men as victims are also available to protect women as victims. Yet, situation of women has not been left simply to such laws, as the special and supplementary attention in different forms given at international and national levels readily show.
In perspective, the global vision should be to eliminate violence against all without any gender delineation or discrimination. In that regard, however small in volume or infrequent female-on-male violence may be, the goal as in the case of females, should be eradication and not mere periodic sanctioning of female perpetrators of domestic violence. This dictates that similar attitudes, measures and approaches should be committed to both.
That is the fundamental essence of equality and non-discrimination. The vulnerability of women or the female gender as a whole dictates that appropriate safeguards should be in place to protect their rights and interests.
The historical march of women from patriarchal domination and subordination to relative liberation has been long, cutting across different challenging terrains. In this light all the efforts and measures deployed at national and international levels to confront violence against women cannot reasonably be faulted. They thus endorse all the measures and approaches adopted at various levels to combat the menace. Without prejudice to the foregoing, it is also important to collectively and robustly address and engage violence against any gender, group or individual under any guise whatsoever.
It is in that context that this paper has canvassed the pertinent need to realistically and effectively confront the trending incidents of women-on-men violence without any discrimination. The starting point is to appreciate the unquestionable capabilities of women to dispense violence on same level as men, or worse—as some instances discussed in this paper show. This dovetails into a sober and holistic engagement of women-on-men violence at national and international levels.
One researcher believes that fans of the popular HBO series may have helped tone down the amount of violence against women in the upcoming season.
Young women who have experienced violence may be difficult to detect. But men who are physically abused by their partners don't talk about it. That makes it important for him to work with this problem himself. Nancy Bazilchuk. July - She has now studied 20 cases, 10 of which where the men drop out of therapy and 10 cases where the men completed all the sessions.
Photo: ATV. University of Oslo. If counselling doesn't yield results, then we register a case. Even when it reaches the judiciary, focus is more on the legal aspect.
Deeksha named changed , a lawyer and a domestic violence survivor, agrees. The NGOs, police offered a shelter home to me, but not to him who is really the one that needs to be reformed. The Indian schooling system should inculcate gender studies when the kids are still in their formative years, she says.
Sadani also believes the youth must be sensitised. MAVA has also started a new initiative called Maanush in 3 states — Assam, Gujarat and Karnataka — wherein select young men are trained and mentored on issues of gender and sexuality. BIP counsels men who inflict violent physical abuse upon a child, spouse, or others.
Some men opt for it voluntarily and others under court order. The counsellors at these programmes challenge men about their ideas of patriarchy and attempt to sensitise them on gender equality. It's an idea that is suggested by Deeksha too. The programme also shows that prison is not necessarily the answer. According to a study published by Sage Journals, BIPS was more effective in reducing the likelihood of future arrests in domestic violence cases than those who had served time in prison.
Sadani says it is worth trying something along these lines in India too. Reasons why women face domestic violence. Hindin, B. Mullany, and S. Kishor, S. Beating justified if wife argues with husband women. Beating justified if wife neglects the children women. Beating justified if wife goes out without telling husband women. Beating justified if wife refuses to have sex with husband women.
Beating justified if wife burns the food women.
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