Violence Against Women

Prepared by: Dr. mai izeldeen Institute of Gender, diversity, peace and rights

Ahfad University for Women The meaning of violence against women and its scope:
The concept is defined by UNIFEM at the declaration on the elimination of violence against women (DEVAW) in 1994 as, " any act of gender based violence that result in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or marital harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life." Article 2 of DEVAW elaborate that violence against women encompasses but is not limited to the following: (a) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation (FGM) and other traditional practices harmful to women, non spousal violence and violence related to exploitation. (b) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in education institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution. (c) Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the state, wherever it occurs (source-----) However, a broad understanding of violence against women in this paper is used to refer to all actions, legislations, value systems, practices intended or unintended that lead to women subordination and curtail her from optimum self realization, promotion, dignity and wellbeing. These violent actions, laws or values may be done or developed by intimate persons within family level or by a broader circle of members of society, state or international community. It could be systematic practices and phenomenon as well as few isolated ones. It could be practices not intended to be violent or intended to bring about the greatest of harm. The carving of the values or practices that are violent could be developed or initiated during a process on going since generations that date back

centuries ago such as values around FGM. In the part some elaboration on aspects of VAW will be illustrated.

Strategies and approaches undertaken to combat VAW: Education and equality

Breaking the silence of violence against women in Sudan can be traced back as early as 1907 the start of girls education, advocated by the late Shiekh Babiker Badri, which manifest the first challenge to the Sudanese traditions and customs as the time not perceiving the importance of girls education in Sudan. Demanding rights The Sudanese Women's Movement in 1950s is another manifestation of breaking the silence of violence against women. The right to vote and stand for election, the right of equal pay for equal work and other many rights secured in that arena are also good examples of actions challenging that value system and call for gender equality and women's, human dignity and rights. Researches and surveys Moreover, the research project of Khartoum University on Female Genital Mutilation in 1979 is another example of research efforts that dispute the traditional believes at that time and thus smash the serenity on such sensitive issue. Advocacy level In addition, the series of conferences, symposiums, and workshops started first with The Changing Status of Sudanese Women Symposium in 1979 by Ahfad University for Women, The Female Circumcision Conference in 1981, and the African Women Speak on FGM Conference in 1983 held by Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women Studies (BBSAWS) are all manifestation of actions, lobbying and research aiming to confront the de-facto of Sudanese women subordination and violence against women and to bring along social transformation which include gender equality and women empowerment to end violence. BBSAWS, in 1997, produced a booklet as part of a series on women's legal rights with the label Violence Against Women. There was a debate from some women NGOs and unions on whether we should give the book such a title and label our Sudanese society as having such phenomena. After lengthy debate on a one day workshop to discuss both title and content of the book, no other word in Arabic is found to describe the content of the word than violence "Ala'nf". The booklet was

used as part of a training program to address both women's rights, violations of right and violence. Researches where undertaken by Ahfad staff and students since 1995 on different concepts of domestic violence, street and transport harassment, family rape, violence in displaced camps, harassment to women in market places, state harassment by enforcing women veil, in legislations etc. Several booklets, reports and dissertations were produced on these topics. Moreover, the Strategic Initiative for the Horn of Africa (SIHA) network for women NGOs undertook a regional research on the issue of violence against women. The Sudan research report was discussed in a one day workshop in 2004. The project on VAW currently undertake by the Gender, Training and Research centre (GTRC), Panos Institute- Khartoum office and SALMA consulting group is another effort to highlight the issue through researching on domestic violence. Mutawinat group addressed issues of violence against women prisoners and offered legal aid since the early 1990's. The UNIFEM supporting some NGOs to undertake training on how to address issues of VAW and support victims of VAW especially those who suffers from war-related collective rape in Darfur. Moreover, several UN agencies supported the collective efforts to discuss openly and raise awareness on the extent of the phenomena of VAW and the need to address it through various measures. UNFPA, UNMIS, UNIFEM, UNICEF and UNDP have several programs on diverse aspects of VAW. Other NGOs such as CARE, Oxfare and Plan Sudan have addressed different types of VAW. Various networks especially those on eradicating FMG, combating HIV/ AIDS impaction women, have been working on addressing these issues as part of what could be considered as VAW. Moreover, NGOs worked on issues of girls child marriage and street children such as Society on Eradication of Harmful Traditional Practises (SEHTP), SABAH and Amel amongst others. Protecting girls rights for education and in other spheres have been the focus of the High Council for Protecting Children, UNICEF and Ministry of Education, yet with fewer activism to address the root causes of violating their rights, engendering their activities or come up with a clear long term policy and plan of action. The newly formed unit in 2006 labelled VAW department at the ministry of justice is a step in the right direction to make the government address the issue not only from a legal
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dimension, but hopefully to be focal for future government policies and programs to address the holistic nature of the phenomena. There is a wide range of activities to discuss or advocate for ending VAW, address it by action, or researching the issue and raise awareness about it especially during the annual 16 days of activism against VAW. However, still the phenomena does not remark a priority for many groups within the non-state actors as well as with in the state. It is high time to address the issue and to break the taboo over discussing it and to reach to a zero tolerance to the phenomena.