By Evangeline T. Capuno
Every November 25, the world observes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, with the goal to raise awareness around the globe that women are subjected to rape, domestic violence, and other forms of violence. Furthermore, one of the objectives of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
If you don’t know yet why November 25 was the chosen day, this was in order to commemorate the 1960 assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, who were political activists in the Dominican Republic. The dictator Rafael Trujillo reportedly ordered the killings of the three sisters.
Feminists and health and social workers call those harrowing experiences experienced by the females as violence against women (VAW). The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993) defines VAW as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
In the Philippines, we have an 18-day commemoration for the elimination of VAW. It will start on November 25 and end on December 12. It is called the National Consciousness Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and their Children (VAWC).
Against children, too
The Republic Act 9262 – more popularly known as the Violence Against Women and their Children Law – was passed in 2004. It broadened the definition of abuse to include physical, emotional and economic harm. It also made violence by an intimate partner (anyone with whom a woman has a sexual relationship) a public crime, thus making it possible for anyone – not just the victim – to file a case against a perpetrator.
Intimate partner violence refers to the behavior in an intimate relationship that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors.
Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. It includes rape, defined as the physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus with man’s sexual organ, other body part or object.
“Violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive problems in the world today,” said then Davao City Mayor now Vice President Sara Duterte in 2021. “Attacks against women happen in workplaces, public spaces, churches and other places of worship, schools, and worse, at home.”
Gabriela, a party list dedicated to promoting the rights of marginalized and under-represented Filipino women, said that one in three women in the world gets beaten or raped in her lifetime. “In the Philippines, domestic violence is a reality that occurs once every 37 minutes,” it said.
One in five women
Here is another disturbing fact from the World Health Organization (WHO): at least one in five women has been physically or sexually abused by a man at some time in her life. The United Nations health agency declared that “women are more at risk from their husbands, fathers, neighbors or colleagues than they are from strangers.”
Population Reports stated that violence affects women’s sexual and reproductive health. “Physical violence and sexual abuse can put women at risk of infection and unwanted pregnancies directly, if women are forced to have sex, or fear using contraception or condoms because of their partners’ reaction,” it stated.
Around the world, as many as one woman in every four is physically or sexually abused during pregnancy, usually by her partner. “Pregnant women who have experienced violence are more likely to delay seeking prenatal care, and to gain insufficient weight,” Population Reports revealed. “They are also more likely to have a history of sexually transmitted infections, unwanted or mistimed pregnancies, vaginal and cervical infections, kidney infections, and bleeding during pregnancy.”
Violence has also been linked with increased risk of miscarriages and abortions, premature labor, and fetal distress. Likewise, it may affect pregnancy outcomes indirectly, by increasing the women’s likelihood of engaging in such harmful health behaviors as smoking, and alcohol and drug abuse.
“Violence has been linked to many serious health problems, both immediate and long-term,” Population Reports further elaborated. These include physical health problems, such as injury, chronic pain syndromes, and gastrointestinal disorders, and a range of mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.
In the case of the Philippines, the 2008 National Demographic Health Survey estimated that one in five Filipino women between the ages of 15 and 49 had experienced physical violence, while 14 percent of women have been physically abused by their husbands.
Students not spared
More often than not, only wives and lovers are reported to have suffered violence from their husbands or partners. Female students, however, are not spared from such kind of violence. That’s the finding of a study done by Mildred D. Megarbio and Romeo T. Cabarde, Jr. They have documented the experiences of these female students in Voices of Women on Violence Against Women: A Documentation of VAW Experiences of Female Students in Davao City.
“The effects of VAW can be far-ranging,” Megarbio and Cabarde wrote. “VAW creates lasting consequences in their physical, mental, emotional, and psychological health, and even reproductive health, such as resulting in miscarriages and unwanted pregnancies.
“Being students, their studies [are affected] as a result of VAW,” the researchers added. “Worse is that the experiences even created rifts between and among members in the family, and those who experienced it lost their self-concept, and a few became sexually promiscuous.”
Let’s take a closer look at the facts and figures of the study.
There were 439 respondents from privately-owned Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) and state-run University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP). Majority of the respondents (76.3%) heard about VAW while 26.7% of them do not really know what VAW truly means. “In fact, 35.5% of them cannot identify any specific form of VAW,” the researchers wrote.
But one thing is sure: Almost half of the respondents (44.9%) know someone in school who has experienced some forms of violence, with most having been physical in nature (68.02%). About one-third (31.7%) of them have experienced being humiliated by their teachers in front of the class.
What is interesting is that 29.8% of the respondents heard of someone in school who is engaged in prostitution, one of the forms of exploitation of women.
“The fact that the majority of the respondents have inflicted violence upon another person translates conversely to the number of victims that fell prey to their abuse conduct,” the two researchers wrote.
More than half (51.3%) of the respondents have hit someone. “Most of those whom they hit are their male friends (40%), their brothers (27.56%), and sisters (28%),” the study said. A few dared to hit their parents: father (8.4%) and mother (13.78%).
About 7.3% experienced having sex already, with 68.75% of them having been forced by their partners to engage in sex. On the other side of the coin, more of the respondents (34.38%) admitted that they have also forced their partners to have sex with them.
Aside from the physical bruises, marks and stains as obvious manifestations, the study also found these following indicators: presence of depression, staring at empty spaces, feeling disturbed, lack of focus in studies, visible body shivers if in the presence of the perpetrator, becoming man-haters, behavioral changes like being irritable and moody, off tangent answers to questions, and unconscious repetition of abusive words they heard from their perpetrators.
What happened to these students who were victims of VAW?
“Despite the difficulties that most of them go through, many of them manage to cope creatively with the problematic situation,” Megarbio and Cabarde wrote. “Most of them would just keep silent through, or pretend as if nothing has happened, as a means of addressing their worries.
“The friends would be of big help as they usually become the outlets and emotional vents of the victims. Others seek help from parents, local authorities, relatives and even from courts, although a few mentioned that they already lost hope in institutions who can give them support,” the researchers added. – ###
Photo credit: domesticviolenceinfo.ca
