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Women's Day
FAITH IN ACTION
By Katherine Marshall
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.
Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, a Visiting Professor, and a senior advisor for the World Bank.
By Katherine Marshall |
March 8, 2010; 12:46 AM ET
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Faith in Action
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Posted by: YEAL9 | March 8, 2010 6:22 PM
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It's understandable that programs to help men and women have grown up separately but from the sounds of it, that leads to one group feeling invisible when the light shines on the other. Ending abuse in intimate relationships is the common goal and I can only imagine that sharing experience - and developing empathy and understanding about the differences - would be good for everyone. Here's a place where dialogue could have people imagining how to pull together to end violence.
Posted by: MaryTak7128 | March 8, 2010 3:39 PM
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usapdx, I agree. I saw it growing up in Utah were Mormon women were definitely considered subservient to their male Elders.
Posted by: coloradodog | March 8, 2010 1:24 PM
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The world problem that females have is the fact that males and religions do not value females as equal.
Posted by: usapdx | March 8, 2010 11:53 AM
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While I applaud efforts to cast outrage on domestic violence (including an ad campaign here in Mexico, where domestic abuse against women is more common, that warns "hitters of women go to jail"), society's "dirty little secret" is that men are victims, too.
As pointed out in an article by Christina Gleason, "Men who are abused by women often suffer in silence. In addition to the shame shared by many women victims of domestic violence, men must overcome gender stereotypes.
While most attention is given to women who are abused by men, men are often overlooked victims of domestic violence. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, men account for approximately 15% of the victims of reported intimate partner violence (February 2003).
How Women Abuse Men
Women who abuse men are not much different than their male counterparts who abuse women. Men can be hit, kicked, punched, pushed, or bitten by women abusers. Women can also use weapons, such as knives, guns, or any blunt object that can be used to strike.
Abused men are not necessarily smaller or physically weaker than the women who abuse them, but they do not use their size or strength to hurt their abusive partners even when they are being hurt."
As a victim of an ex-wife who was a strong ex-swimmer, I suffered punches to the ear, deep scratches to the face with multiple sharp fingernails, contusions from being thrown into a closet and its doors knocked down on top of me and the terror of doorjambs shattering when I locked myself in a room to get away from her uncontrollable rage. Before you misandrists mock and make fun of me and tell me it's my fault as if women never provoked similar attacks, you need to know I was trained in hand-to-hand combat in the military and could have easily hurt or killed her with a counter-attack but I was taught never to hit women and knew I would be the first to go to jail if I fought back.
Read more at Suite101: Male Victims of Domestic Violence: Why Men Don't Report Physical Abuse http://physical-abuse.suite101.com/article.cfm/male_victims_of_domestic_violence#ixzz0harA3Rzn
Maybe we need a "Men's Day" for these victims as well.
Posted by: coloradodog | March 8, 2010 9:19 AM
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Faith Trust Institute- information purposes only-
Dr. Marie Fortune is the founder/senior analyst’ of the non-profit FaithTrust Institute. (not Faith Institute). She is a minister in the United Church of Christ.
Her annual salary is $99,970 which includes benefits. The group’s executive director is Kathryn Jans. Her salary is $90,994.
Contributions and grants for the 2008-2009 made to the group were $752,466. The group’s investment portfolio value was $109,809 losing $22,437 for the year.
"Our Marriage Was Taken from Us
by Rev. Marie M. Fortune
Christian Feminism Today has invited me to reflect on marriage equality as it has affected my own family life.
The current “controversy” about lesbian and gay people seems to be focused particularly on marriage equality. The fear driving the controversy, as expressed by supporters of Proposition 8 in California, is that changing the law to allow lesbians and gays to marry would be changing the definition of marriage. This political situation requires much more critical thinking than we generally hear from all quarters. But in the end, the question of whether the legal privileges and responsibilities of marriage are extended to gays and lesbians is a very personal one.
My partner, Anne, and I have been in love and in life together for over 35 years. We have both weathered periods of estrangement from our immediate families but are happy to say that we have also found strong support from individual family members. We covenanted our relationship in 1980 in a celebration in our home, among our friends, and officiated by a Roman Catholic nun.
This was the important event; this is the day we celebrate as our anniversary and remember the promises we made to each other that day.
But then when the opportunity arose in Oregon on April 9, 2004, we drove to Portland to legally marry. The highlight of that day for me was walking into the Multnomah County Clerk’s office, waiting in line anxiously, and then having the clerk respond to our request for a license with respect and courtesy. I wept as she handed us our license and wished us well. We then went to the downtown United Church of Christ and were legally wed, accompanied by a small group of friends."
references: http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2009/911/031/2009-911031362-0562aa6a-9.pdf
Christian Feminism Today