Domestic Violence

There are many societal issues that have been going on for years now such as domestic violence. Domestic violence is when someone is being physically abused by their partner at home and controlled every aspect of their life by the partner. In domestic violence, it affects an individual’s both, mental and physical aspects which causes them to be traumatized. Why domestic violence occurs and how it is caused by society? It is caused by the imbalance of power that is given by our society between genders. When one gender has more power than the other there will always be unfair actions towards the weaker gender. This is because the one with the least power is seen weaker than the other gender. To be specific, our society has given male more power over females. Therefore, females face domestic abuse daily in their lives because their partners think it is acceptable and they have the right to beat them.

According to this image, it portrays the way this woman is being forced to stay silent after being abused by her male partner. The woman’s eye shows how scared she is and unable to take action against this violence. This image is a perfect way to show how dangerous domestic violence is. The author of this image is trying to convey that when someone is abused physically, they are silent most of the time because they don’t know what to do about it or can’t take an action against it as they are emotionally affected. For example, the author writes “Silent” on the abuser’s hand where it can be seen that he is suffocating the girl, scaring her to stay quiet.  In addition, this picture also shows a hand covering the lady’s mouth, depicting the idea that most of the times the victims are being silenced by the abusers, family or the society itself. 

In the 21st century, some women are still being looked down upon by the society, simply because they are women and according to the society, they are inferior to men. In some families, women are not being treated equally and are usually considered as “burden” which, in most cases leads to the women getting into an abusive marriage. For example, in Ravneet kaur and Suneela Garg’s article, it states “Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women. It affects women across the life span from sex selective abortion of female fetuses to forced suicide and abuse, and is evident, to some degree, in every society in the world.” This implies how different ways domestic violence is affecting women. Domestic violence is the reason why the abortion and suicide rates has increased. It also indicates that this violence is used on women because they are portrayed as weak by our society. Therefore, domestic violence also occurs because of our society’s unfair rules on women. The authors also state that, “Women were always considered weak, vulnerable and in a position to be exploited. Violence has long been accepted as something that happens to women.” This demonstrates that it has been normalized for women to be abused and beaten up because they are not seen as strong like men. Due to that perspective they hold, they are taking advantage of it normalizing the violence to be right. Moreover, the authors also mention that, “Cultural mores, religious practices, economic and political conditions may set the precedence for initiating and perpetuating domestic violence, but ultimately committing an act of violence is a choice that the individual makes out of a range of options.” As you can see, cultural and religious values along with economic and political conditions triggers domestic violence but it is up to the person to decide if they want to engage in violence. Additionally, according to Nancy Berns, she states that “the popular women’s magazines, which demonstrate the dominance of an individual perspective for establishing responsibility for domestic violence. Not only is it portrayed as a private problem but most often it is the victim’s problem. Most of the time these magazines locate the victims’ experiences within a discourse that ignores not only the role of the abusers but also of society.” This explains the sad reality of today. Where, when a female is being abused mentally and physically, the society sees it as a women’s problem. They quickly judge her based on the way she dresses, and acts around other people. Society tries to justify the abusers by always blaming the victims. By creating the idea that women are being abused because of how they dress and act, society totally ignores the fact. The fact that an abuser should be punished. Society forgets that it’s not the victim who is the problem in the situation, it’s always the abuser, for always holding negative intentions and actions. Moreover, in another source, by Donald G. Dutton, states that “In patriarchal countries, violence against women still persists as a “right” that men believe they have… cultural practices in Sardinia , which include a man’s “duty” to kill his wife if he believed she was cheating on him (and destroying family honour). “Family honour” societies are typically highly religious.” This shows that society is the reason for this inequality between genders to exist. Society makes these unfair rules that those men follow because society says it’s right that way. Hence, their unfair actions on women are completely justified by society. 

Domestic violence has been a problem everyday but this year it increased more due to Covid-19. Due to lockdown people are staying home however, it is not safe for them at all. For Victims of domestic violence, work was a way for them to escape from their partner’s abuse. As Melissa Jeltson states that, “In China, activists have reported a surge in domestic violence cases as millions of people have been under quarantine… During a time of extreme lockdown with the coronavirus, when people are not allowed to move around, it makes it exponentially more difficult for a victim of domestic violence in the home to go somewhere else” This is accurate because people are not being able to go outside which is causing them mental pressure even more. So, in a domestic violence relationship both, the victim and the abuser get mentally disturbed even more and cause the abuser to abuse the victim more often than before lockdown. In that case, the victim also can’t take any action because she has no other places to go to than tolerating the abuse. Jeltson also mentions that, “… perpetrators have increased access to their families, and they can get away with the abuse more easily as support services break down.” This clears the idea that the abusers are more likely to abuse the victims even more during this time of lockdown because the services that help victims of domestic violence are not open. Therefore, the abusers are likely to take advantage of this situation to abuse their partners even more. Similarly, in another source Amanda Taub states that, “The United Nations called on Sunday for urgent action to combat the worldwide surge in domestic violence. “I urge all governments to put women’s safety first as they respond to the pandemic,” Secretary General António Guterres wrote on Twitter.” This proves the danger of victims of domestic violence staying home during this lockdown and how lockdown is making it worse for those victims. Those victim’s life is in danger at the highest right now because they cannot escape for the torture and the abuse since everything is closed. Their life is at high risk as well because they could even die from the continuous abuse since lockdown is not ending soon. Amanda also states a victims experience, as she says, “On March 1, while Lele was holding her 11-month-old daughter, her husband began to beat her with a high chair… one of her legs lost feeling and she fell to the ground, still holding the baby in her arms. her husband had abused her throughout their six-year relationship, but that the Covid-19 outbreak made things far worse…” This shows the physical torture that women are going through which increased more now since they are not being able to go outside. Staying inside all day after day with each other increased the conflict bigger and worse. Also, Lele’s abusive husband is using this opportunity as well to torture her to his satisfaction. Therefore, Covid-19 has made it unsafe for many victims of domestic violence to stay at home. 

Hence, domestic violence continued to go on for centuries till now. Many women activists are helping the victims to get out of the abuse from their partners/ husbands. Many women have protested against this issue to free women and be treated right equally. They have taught and educated many women to be strong enough to fight the battle and normalized for them to take action against their abusive partners because staying silent won’t get them out of it nor stop these abusers to take advantage of us. However, this image is a portrayal of how biased our society is in the way it gives man’s more rights and power over women to control and dictate them.