Why are we still bludgeoning women?

Millions around the world observed International Women’s Day yesterday and heard much the same message as in previous years – that violence against women is still commonplace. And the same very modern phrase of indignation must have crossed many minds: “How is this still a thing?”

How is it possible that all the trappings of modern civilisation, particularly the speed of communication and what must surely be the wider embrace of nobler attitudes, have failed to lessen the scourge of sexual abuse?

Fresh in the mind yesterday was Lady Gaga’s moving performance at the Academy Awards earlier this month. Having admitted that she’d kept her own sexual abuse a secret for 10 years, the American singer presented one of the nominated tunes, “Til It Happens to You” from the documentary film “The Hunting Ground”. 

Joining her onstage were dozens of fellow victims, all traumatised, all silenced by undeserved shame for varying periods of time, and here, finally, emboldened to stand up before a global audience and protest at the negligence of society – of law enforcement, the courts, schools, parents and governments. In this day and age, how were the sexual predators who abused them permitted to behave as they wished?

Lady Gaga is not the first superstar to address such a sad truth with personal disclosure. Three years ago Madonna revealed that she’d been raped at age 19 and felt too humiliated to report her case to the police. Gaga couldn’t even tell her own family.

These famous stars share a common pain, weighted by the same emotional baggage – and yet have emerged, courageously, to speak out against the repressive traits of modern society that allow violence against women to persist. 

Celebrities they may be, but they speak for all female victims of assault. Women’s rights have gained significant ground over the decades and more women have become “empowered” in business and other pursuits, and yet the danger they face remains ever present, due only to their gender. Civil society offers a helping hand, but in the final analysis, every woman has to conduct her own quest for a better, safer lot in life. She must empower herself, confident in the knowledge that this patriarchal society will one day acknowledge her needs.

For now, preying on women is still very much a reprehensible “thing”. In Thailand, on average, 87 women are assaulted every day. Every 15 minutes a woman or a child is abused. Forty-four per cent of Thai women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner. And many more attacks go unreported, the victims prepared to punish themselves rather than face public shame and the ordeal of a listless police investigation or a lopsided court hearing. 

The disturbing statistics have nothing to do with how developed a nation or a region is, or how conservative the society. In Britain just 11 per cent of rapes are reported to police. In the United States rape is the least-reported crime. It doesn’t help matters that women’s advocacy groups are divided on the value of reporting attacks to police. Some caution that doing so only leads to more suffering for the victim. Imagine a place, though, where the victim doesn’t have to choose between reporting the crime or not reporting it. In Tunisia a wife is legally barred from charging her husband with rape.

Psychiatrists, for the most part, suggest that victims shouldn’t feel obliged to see the police, but they recommend talking about the attack to someone, even if just a friend. It seems plain enough, though, that the increase in victims’ plights being shared with the general public – in the years since it stopped being a taboo subject – has brought the scale of the problem into the open. We now understand the nature of the crime better too, and recognise that it is indeed a heinous, intolerable affront to decent society. Public opinion is thus moulded and, for the victims, a better outcome is likely. There’s no need to remain a silent victim any longer. If there is anger in their hearts, let it stir the bravery to come forward and demand change.