violence against women – Engaging Peace

Becoming better acquainted: Peace activists you want to know, Part 1

Posted on March 10, 2018April 7, 2018 by kathiemm

By Guest Authors Anita McKone and Robert J. Burrowes

Note from Kathie MM: Anita McKone and Robert J. Burrowes are life-long peace and justice advocates. They were featured in Kathie MM and Tony Marcella’s recent series, dedicated to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , on peace activists. Today, Anita and Robert begin a guest series with inspiring stories of Nonviolence Charter members.

Ella Polyakova is the key figure at Soldiers’ Mothers of Saint-Petersburg in Russia. In Ella’s words: “When we were creating our organization, we understood that people knew little about their rights, enshrined in Russia’s Constitution, that the concept of ‘human dignity’ had almost disappeared, that no one had been working with the problems of common people, let alone those of conscripts. We clearly understood what a soldier in the Russian army was – a mere cog in the state machine, yet with an assault rifle. We felt how important hope, self-confidence and trust were for every person. At the beginning of our journey, we saw that people around us, as a rule, did not even know what it meant to feel free. It was obvious for us that the path towards freedom and the attainment of dignity was going through enlightenment. Therefore, our organization’s mission is to enlighten people around us. Social work is all about showing, explaining, and proving things to people, it is about convincing them. Having equipped ourselves with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Russia’s Constitution, we started to demolish this dispossession belt between citizens and their rights. It was necessary to make sure that people clearly understood that, having a good knowledge of rights, laws, and situations at hand, they would be able to take responsibility and protect themselves from abuse.”

Lily Thapa is the inspirational founder president, in 1994, of Women for Human Rights, a single women group (WHR) in Nepal. WHR is an NGO “dedicated to creating an active network of single women on a regional, national, and international level.” By working exclusively with and for them, WHR is dedicated to addressing the rights of single women and creating a just and equitable society where the lives of single women are strengthened and empowered. “Rejecting the label “widow”, WHR ‘issued a national declaration to use the term “single women” instead of “widow.” The word ‘widow’ (‘Bidhwa’ in Nepali) carries negativity and disdainful societal views, which leaves many single women feeling humiliated and distressed.” Working to empower women economically, politically, socially, and culturally in order to live dignified lives and enjoy the value of human rights, WHR works at the grassroots, district, regional, national, South Asian, and international levels. Lily has pointed out that there are “285 million single women in the world; among them 115 million fall below the poverty line and 38 million conflict-affected single women have no access to justice; these women are last.” Recently, Lily was awarded the South Asian ‘Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman’, which is “presented annually to a woman who has dared to dream and has the capability to translate that dream into reality.”

Christophe Nyambatsi Mutaka is the key figure at the Groupe Martin Luther King, which promotes active nonviolence, human rights, and peace. The group is based in Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in central Africa, and focuses particularly on reducing sexual and other violence against women.

Where it all begins, Part 1

Posted on July 21, 2017July 21, 2017 by kathiemm

By Kathie MM

Most children, in this country and much of the rest of the world, have been subjected to considerable verbal and psychological violence, and often physical violence, by the age of two—and it may only get worse. The “terrible twos” often means terrible treatment.

Toddlers are routinely yelled at, sworn at, called names, threatened. They are shaken, slapped on the hands or buttocks, sometimes slapped in the face, spanked, sometimes hit with switches, kicked, beaten—and all of these things may happen in what people think of as “good homes.”

Given the level of violence in families, it should not be surprising that in day care and nursery schools, children are heard yelling, “I hate you, I’m going to kill you!” They don’t need to watch TV to learn these messages.

Robert J. Burrowes has written passionately about the likely outcomes of violence against children.

Here is an example of what he has to say:

“The man who inflicts violence on women was damaged during childhood. The white person who inflicts violence on people of colour was damaged during childhood. The employer who exploits workers was damaged during childhood.

The individual who endorses the state violence inflicted on indigenous peoples was damaged during childhood. The terrorist, the political leader who wages war and the soldier who kills in our name were all damaged during childhood.

The person who supports structures of violence (such as the military, police, legal and prison systems) was damaged during childhood.

The person who supports structures of exploitation (such as capitalism and imperialism) was damaged during childhood. The person who thoughtlessly participates in destruction of the natural environment was damaged during childhood.”

What do you think of Burrowes’ argument?

Do you have other explanations for this country’s high level of engagement in violence?

Clearly poverty and racism can also damage children but hordes of violent people are reapers rather than victims of those social ills. If we really want to reduce violence in and by our country, we better play closer attention to what we do in our homes.

Please share your views.

Antidotes to bombardment

Posted on May 24, 2017May 25, 2017 by kathiemm

by Kathie MM

The corporate media assaults us with one awful story after another.

Hate crimes, racist incidents, violence against women, attacks on immigrants, loss of health care, chaotic governments, threats of fascism and terrorism.

Sometimes it’s hard not to feel frightened, stressed out, depressed.

But there are other messages in the media, perhaps more worthy of your attention.

Here’s one from Steven Singer.

He tells us that as a critic of charter and voucher schools, he is often asked, ‘Why should I care about other people’s children?’”

In his thoughtful essay, he explains:

“Children…. haven’t done anything to earn the hate or enmity of the world.… Many of them haven’t even learned the prejudices and ignorance of their parents. And even where they have, it is so new it can be changed.”

“[Helping someone else’s child] wouldn’t hurt my child. In fact, it would show her how a decent person acts towards others. It would teach her empathy, kindness, caring. It would demonstrate the values I try to instill in her – that we’re all in this together and we owe certain things to the other beings with which we share this world.”

“I proudly send my daughter to public school…I want her to experience a wide variety of humanity. I want her to know people unlike her, and to realize that they aren’t as different as they might first appear. I want her to know the full range of what it means to be human. I want her to be exposed to different cultures, religions, nationalities, world views, thoughts and ideas….

I want us both to live in a society that treats people fairly, and where people of all types can come together and talk and reason and enjoy each other’s company.”

For me, this essay reverberates far beyond the issue of charter schools. It represents a set of goals for humanity sought by millions of people around the world for hundreds of years. Let their voices, our voices, be heard.

Women in a culture of violence

Posted on January 21, 2013January 19, 2013 by kathiemm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp1-ncU2ilY

The roots of the current U.S. culture of violence extend back to the unprecedented violence unleashed on this continent by European settlers in the 17^th century. With the impunity that came with access to guns, belief in a God who favored them over others, and readily available justifications for violence, the settlers undertook a genocide of the native peoples.

The heavy hand of this culture of violence has always descended more heavily on some victims than others—not just on the native peoples but always on whoever the more recent immigrants are, on people of color, on non-Christians, and on women and children.

Consider the following facts about violence against women from the “National intimate partner and sexual violence survey (2011): data on abuse by intimate partner”:

32.9% of women reported physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime
24.3% of women reported severe physical violence in their lifetime
4% reported physical violence from an intimate partner within the past year
40.3% reported psychological aggression
10.4% reported psychological aggression in the past year

Growing up in a culture of violence, with its constant images of and justifications for violence and inhumanity, affects everyone. Children growing up in such a culture and women surviving in such a culture may respond to their experiences in ways that prolong their misery and make it easy for the more privileged segments of society to abuse them further.

Consider these facts about women in prison:

Over 90% have experienced violence in their lives
33% report childhood sexual abuse
More than 50% of the abused women report rape or attempted rape

Efforts to stop violence against women, which now extend worldwide, will be considered in later posts, but for now join us in this inspiring anthem from One Billion Rising.

Join your voice with proponents of an end to violence against women, which in turn would strengthen the resistance to violence against children and other living things.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology