Treating women: a race between progress and backwardness
Dr. Michel E. Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
The United Nations has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
As for the current year, it is "as in previous years, this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women inaugurates 16 days of activity that must conclude on December 10, the day that commemorates International Human Rights Day" and that According to the website for combating violence against women (*).
As reported by the website itself, this campaign, "led by the UN Secretary-General and UN Women since 2008," aims to "prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls around the world." It also urges "global action to raise awareness and strengthen advocacy towards that goal and provide opportunities to discuss challenges and solutions."
As for the current year, and according to the same site, the Unite Campaign aims to "mobilize all groups of societies in all countries of the world and activate them in the field of preventing violence against women, and solidarity with women's rights activists and support for women's movements in all parts of the world to resist the withdrawal from women's rights and advocacy to a world free from violence against women and girls.
The website adds that violence against women and girls is "one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today, and it is still largely unknown because of the impunity, silence and stigma that surrounds it."
As for violence against women, it took different forms according to time and place, although its minimum level remains unacceptable.
Historically, women have been subjected to the worst types of treatment, the least of which is beating and the most extreme of which is murder. Between them are all forms of humiliation, verbal violence, rape, forced marriage, genital mutilation, and even slavery and trafficking.
The mistreatment of women is due to multiple reasons, including the cultural-values heritage that makes her a dependent and second-class citizen, and the political and legislative ones that deny her her rights and even to claim them, and the economic ones that make her vulnerable to exploitation by the stronger, and the psychological ones that allow the man to exercise his anger and hatred on her. The important thing in all of this is that it leads to making women the weakest link in society, upon which all its misfortunes revert.
As for the consequences of mistreatment of women, they are many and it is not possible to count them due to their complexity and the fact that they interfere with the affairs of life in general.
The repercussions of violence against women are primarily on the physical level, as they suffer from various forms of ailments, such as physical pain of all kinds, and muscle and joint diseases. All this without considering the suicide attempts that she may resort to when she sees her life blocked.
Violence against women constitutes an obstacle to their participation in educational, social and economic activities in general, whether at the level of cultural and humanitarian activities or at the level of production. Even a working woman would find her salary confiscated by the male closest to her, the father, brother or husband. This is a major and fundamental problem, as she finds herself deprived of the only means that might secure her some autonomy and dignity. As for education, this dimension has been a major cause of family conflicts, as families that see women as an inferior being, consider education a means of socialization, liberation, and later financial independence.
This bleak scene is no longer but a small part of the status of women in society and has largely become an unwanted part of the past.
The progress that has taken place in human society in general, and in our societies in the Arab world in particular, is an honorable progress that should be emulated.
Enlightenment ideas on the one hand, and women's advocacy and defense of their rights, on the other hand, have played a prominent role in the state of women's conditions in our modern world.
She has become a partner with full rights in various fields. We find her everywhere, alongside the man, and sometimes ahead of him. She shows seriousness, creativity, and the ability to innovate and achieve. She has excelled in all aspects of life, including cultural, human, political, economic and professional. She was helped by steady progress in terms of ideas and beliefs that have made society a habitat of equality and not a jail of discrimination.
The treatment that girls receive from their families has differed today from what it was during the past decades, whether in terms of equal educational opportunities, freedom of choice, or inheritance, despite the existence of some foci of discrimination in separate places of the world and despite the presence of some voices that want to restore Turn back the clock.
Modern man has realized that the criterion for the advancement and progress of nations is their treatment of women, mother, sister, wife, daughter, companion and co-worker. How can society classify as second class who embraces tomorrow's generations for nine months in her heart, who walks with him the first paths of life, and who remains his reference for the rest of his life?
The struggle today is raging, although the outcome is already known, between those who want to follow the path towards full citizenship for women, and those who want to return human society to the age of darkness. Human history has proven that obscurantism has no victory.
When the ignorant masses came to the Incarnate Master wanting to stone the woman whom they considered an “adulterer,” forgetting that there are two partners in adultery, his position was unambiguous and his answer was clear. His attitude entered human history from that day, when the Master raised the woman to the level of man, the full partner in society.
* https://www.un.org/ar/observances/ending-violence-against-women