Rana Alshami | 21 December 2016
Violence against women by their husbands or other male members of their family has existed in almost every human society throughout history.
In Gaza women are left alone and deprived of social support when they face violence. Domestic violence has affected several families for many decades and still dominates our society today. There’s an old saying: If you want to destroy a society, destroy the family.
Women are the core of the family. If you treat her in bad way, how do you want her to raise your children? I don’t know actually.
Physical abuse is common in all parts of the world. No matter how hard we try to protect abused women by passing laws, it’s still a common cause of injuring women. Physical abuse is more common than accidents and work place injuries.
Many women are in abusive situations but can’t get away because of fear or because they feel they provoked their abusers to abuse them. I was walking in the street recently. I heard a very loud scream. I can’t reveal her true name because of our society. *Noor is 29 years old. She has five children. After I gave her some comfort she said, “My husband did not like what I cooked for dinner. So he punched me in the face injuring my eye and lip. I often get severely beaten for several reasons. I’m cruelly insulted but can’t find anyone to listen to my plight or help me overcome my predicament.”
Why are husbands treating their wives this way? She continued saying, “No one cares about me. And this has increased the frequency of my husband’s physical assaults and verbal insults. He even allows his mother and sisters during family meetings.”
She explained that two things prevented her from speaking up. Firstly, her family did not care about what she was being subjected to. The second reason was fear of the death threats from her husband if she dared to talk.
You know, not just men who abuse women. Women abuse women themselves. I know a person called Nawaal Hodeih. She was pregnant to. Her husband’s mother and sisters beat her to death. She died. Nawaal died and her unborn baby also. It’s a crime. So it’s not just men who abuse women
Violence against women has been on the rise with Gazans over the past years.
Rana Alshami
Salaamedia – Gaza
