A hundred years ago a feisty group of women met in Copenhagen and voted unanimously to launch an International Women's Day on March 8. The idea took. Today, some 15 countries celebrate it as a national holiday, and thousands of events worldwide put women's issues in the spotlight. Women are, after all, half the population, so the day has mutated into a month of events
This year, the Global Network of Women of Faith took advantage of the energy around a bevy of United Nations-sponsored events on gender issues to launch a summit on "restoring dignity" for women's month. The hot topic was violence against women and girls.
One of the speakers was
Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, who runs the Faith Institute and has worked all her life to fight domestic violence. She asked her audience (most but not all women) to stand if they had experienced violence themselves or in their family. Most stood. Then those who knew someone who was a victim of violence were asked to stand. Finally, she called on everyone else to stand, because even if they were not aware of it, they surely knew someone who had suffered violence. Surveys show that perhaps 70 percent of women worldwide experience domestic violence at some point in their lives, and some 5,000 women a year are murdered by family members in the name of honor.
Women's stories of pain and courage in confronting violence combine with hard data coming from
many studies to bring home two points: that violence is incredibly common, a dirty secret of our society, across all cultures, and that its impact is deep and lasting. Then the religious women set those realities against sacred texts and teachings that emphasize love and the dignity of the human person. With passion, a pastor, a rabbi, and a Hindu woman argued that violence against women and others is unacceptable in the light of the true teachings of their faith.
So, we have knowledge--far more than we have ever had before--testifying to the reality and universality of violence. We have poignant testimony to its devastating impact. We have lofty pronouncements and detailed laws. We have the backing and inspiration of common religious teachings. The puzzle is why we don't seem to be able to generate a collective outrage and will to act. What on earth is missing?
Stigma and shame are part of the story. A poignant message from the data is that many if not most women never speak about violence they experience to a living soul. They blame themselves. And, tragically, so does society. The BBC stirred up
a hive of objections when they reported a survey suggesting that many women believe that rape victims share some blame for what happened to them. My colleague Brad Hirshfield
wrote indignantly last week about a campaign in Virginia suggesting that "ungodly" behavior (like provocative dress) attracts sexual violence.
Denial is also rampant. Even with data, many are reluctant to accept the reality of violence, so it gets bumped down the agenda. Worse, it is condoned as a normal part of life. So there is plenty of room for a recitation of facts and for stories to lift the shrouds of denial.
But we also need good pointers to the kinds of action that really work. There are lots of examples. Some communities show the way by holding perpetrators of violence to account. But the reality is that this is still pretty piecemeal, with more words than action. Everyone agrees that this is not just a women's problem. Men and women have to work together to change community norms. But finding cases of societies that have truly consigned violence to the ash heap is not easy.
Calls to action on domestic violence are far too muted and carry too little force and conviction from faith leaders, who surely should be at the forefront of the effort to defend those who are abused. More important, though, they should be itching to change the game, to address the underlying and outmoded climate that accepts violence. The women of faith network is absolutely clear in its demand this women's month: it's time to act.
