FACTS againest MYTHS V0L-V-12-1999
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- FACTS againest MYTHS V0L-V-12-1999
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VIKAS ADHYAYAN KENDRA
Vol V # 12/99
INFORMATION BULLETIN
PATRIARCHAL FEARS 1 MISOGYNIC ASSAULTS:
MYTHS ON GENDER VIOLENCE - II
•comment
Kerala, has reflected this nationwide trend with
its female population in the under-6 age-group
falling from 972 in 1961 to 958 per 1000 men.
iolence against women is any violation
of a woman’s personhood, mental or
physical integrity, or freedom of
movement through individual acts and social
oppression. It includes all the ways society
objectifies and oppresses women through
various forms, many of which are historically
sanctioned. With foeticide and female
infanticide in India — female circumcism in
parts of Africa — violence against women
continues to be widespread not just in India but
the world over.
The worldwide resurgence in violence against
women led the UN General Assembly on
February 23,1994 to adopt a special Declaration
on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The Declaration stressed that the same covered
all gender-based violence causing physical and
emotional harm to women, whether it occurs in
public or private life and Art.2 of the
Declaration is exhaustive. It acknowledges that
women suffer violence because of their gender.
It includes acts which are “private” whereby
ends the dichotomy between public and private.
The Declaration enjoins the States to condemn
violence against women and should not invoke
any custom, tradition or religious Sanction avoid
their obligation with respect to its elimination.
Since this Convention, other equally important
measures have come into effect. The 1993
Vienna Declaration and Programme for Action
calls such violence as violence of the human
rights of a majority of the world’s population.
It calls clearly for increased coordination on
human rights within the UN and for the equal
status and human rights of women. Another
important measure is the 'Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
Against Women’ (CEDAW), adopted by the UN
General Assembly in 1976 and is the
International Bill of Rights ofWomen. CEDAW
became effective on September 3,1981, ratified
by 165 countries and by India in 1993.
V
Government statistics, itself, testify to this
reality. Figures presented in Parhament showed
at in 1988 there were, for instance, 11,259
wry-related murders and 3,893 reported cases
of rape. Citing the Bureau of Police Research
and Development there were 20,000 rape crimes
in 1985. The 1996 Crime in India Bulletin of
the Government of India also showed that in
the total, 1,15,733 cases, under separate crime
heads, had been registered as crimes against
women as against 1,09,259 such cases in
1995.Evidently, there has been an upsurge of
5.9 per cent since 1995 and as much as 56.2
per cent since 1991.(Cf.latest figures on pg.2)
More disturbing has been the increase in the
disparity in the ratio between men and women.
The Census of India 1991 records that there
were 945 women per 1,000 men in 1991, down
from 976 women per 1,000 men (0-6 years) in
1961; Punjab (875women per 1,000 men and
IJaryana (879). Even in a highly literate State,
«
Violence against women manifests in various
forms some of which remain unexposed, viz.,
14XdTS against MYTHS
J3$2z:-----------------------------“——
Q FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONIA
1
violence it is, however, also
necessary to comprehend
women
’s day-to-day experience
■ %
Year
of gendered violence within the
" variation
Crime Head
family context. The wide range
in 1998
of violence that women
1998
1997
over 1997
experience is not regarded as acts
+2.0 of criminal violence within the
15031
Rape
15330
4.9
16381
Kidnapping & Abductioin
15617
Establishment. Inadequacies of
15.2
6917
Dowry Death
6006
legal
expressions, encapsulating
12.9
41318
36592
Torture
0.9 women’s experience, helps in
31046
Molestation
30764
40.1 silencing women and towards
8123
Sexual Harassment
5796
87.2 making such violence invisible.
146
Importation of Girls
78
100.0 This enables the patriarchal
wffl
Sati Prevention Act
0
4.5 social value and legal systems to
8695
Immoral Traffic (P) Act
8323
163.0
192
Indeent Rep. of Women (P) Act
73
29.9 defend male violence aS typical
3489
Dowry Prohibition Act
2685
and as an aberration. Similarly,
8.3 dominant social and psychological
131338
Total
121265
interpretations and models on
Source: Indian Express, March 8,2000
gender violence reinforce the
trivalising
of
womeni^
experience. It views that gender violence is er
a) the unacknowledged crime of domestic
violence minimally construed1 as the physical,
pathological phenomenon rooted in factors such
emotional, sexual and psychological abuse of
as mental illness e.g. neurosis, emotional
the adult women in her intimate relationships.
deprivation, sexual frustrations, problematic
It includes all the intimidating acts by the
childhood, disrupted family history, among
members (men and women) of her marital
other such related problems. Other theories and
family, b) The brutality of the Indian Varna
misconceptions that blame the victims, impute
system/caste hierarchy that manifests itself in
pathology to women themselves accusing them
the rising atrocities of Dalits and Dalit women.
of “provoking” violent behaviour due to their
The National Crime Records Bureau2 for
constant nagging, being “too talkative” or people
instance reported that in 1997 alone there were
who are sado-masochists. These and other such
8,500 reported crimes against Dalits. Of these,
gender-blind theories, etc., fail to pin down the
302 were rapes of Dalit women. On December
responsibility of violence on the man. It is
1,1997, at Laxmapur-Bathe in Bihar the upper
basically men who batter women.
caste Ranvir Sena raped and murdered 5 Dalit
MYTH: Battery is a recent phenomenon.
girls and killed 27 women. In February 1988 a
FACT:
Battery or domestic violence is not new.
group of 14 policemen looted, terrorised and
Wife battery has been condoned throughout
resorted to mass rape of Dalit women in Pasaria
history. In India, only in recent times ha^f
village of Bihar. Registered cases of rape
domestic violence become public. A Times of
against Dalit women were 1173 in 1989,1163
in 1990,1067 in 1991 and 1236 in 1992 c) in
India report (24-11-99) cites a study by the
the North-East the State machinery under the
International Centre for Research on Women
facade of “counter-insurgency operations”
that revealed 2/3 of women in the study
resorts to atrocities against the locals including
experienced some form of violence, with sexual
women, d) the killing of women as witches,
harassment widespread; over 40 per cent
particularly in the Adivasi communities.3 In
experiencing domestic violence and sexual
1988,200 women on an average were killed
assault. It also refers to a World Bank study
every year in Singbhum district alone as they
showing that while estimating the cost of
were thought to be witches, e) victimisation of
violence in terms of health burden, the Bank
widows by members of the husband's family,
stated that rape and battery account for 5 per
severely effecting her self-esteem and self
cent of the healthy years of life that are lost to
worth.
women in the reproductive age group.
Of these crime statistics, 35 per cent represent
Another illustration is the prevalence of the
domestic violence. In 1996 it constituted the
crime in the West. The expression “rule of the
major kind of crimes amongst all forms of
thumb” comes from a 1767 English common law
violence against women. In defining domestic
that permitted a husband to “chastise his wife
CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN
FACTS against MYTHS
with a whip or rattan, no wider than his thumb”.
In Canada, it was not until 1968, when the
federal Divorce Act was passed, that physical
and mental cruelty became grounds for divorce.
MYTH: All batterers are alike.
FACT: On the contrary! There are different
types of batterers. According to Jacobson4 a
study showed there are at least two
distinguishable types that have practical
consequences for battered women. These
roughly correspond to the distinction between
what the study called Cobras and the Pit Bulls.
The former appear to be criminal types who
have engaged in anti-social behaviour since
adolescence. They beat their wives and abuse
them emotionally, to stop them from interfering
with the Cobra’s need to get what they want,
when they want it. Although they may
apologise to their wives after beating them, and
^feg their forgiveness, such men are usually not
sorry. Some of them are “psychopaths” which
means they lack a conscience and are incapable
of feeling remorse. But not all Cobras are
psychopaths. Whether psychopathic or merely
antisocial, they are incapable of forming truly
intimate relationships with others, and to the
extent that they marry, they do so on their
terms. There own family histories are often
chaotic, with neither parent providing love or
security, and they were often abused themselves
as children.
Pit Bulls on the other hand are more likely to
confine their violence to family members,
especially their wives. Their fathers were likely
to have battered their mothers, and they have.
learned that battering is an acceptable way to
treat women. Unlike the Cobras, the Pit Bulls
^^e emotionally dependent on their wives.
What they fear most is abandonment.
MYTH: Battering is Never Caused by Drugs
and Alcohol.
FACT: First and foremost, alcohol, etc.,’ is not
the cause of violence but it often makes it worse.
Batterers often use alcohol as an excuse to avoid
taking responsibility for violent behaviour.
Battery, is also resorted to by non-alcohol
consumers and teetotalers.
However, the relevant point here is that earlier
studies, according to Jacobson4, did suggest a
strong relationship between alcohol use and
battering. But, there was at that time a great
deal of ambiguity about the extent to which
drug and alcohol abuse causes men who would
otherwise not be batterers to beat their wives.
Citing another study, Jacobson, shows that this
FACTS against MYTHS
*
study on newlyweds indicated that alcohol use
was one of the strongest indicators that men
would be physically aggressive during the first
year of marriage. Although the research on
drug abuse has been less extensive, it is clear
that batterers are a great deal more likely to be
drug abusers than are men who do not batter.
Further, none of this research proves that
alcohol or drugs “cause” battering. It simply
suggests that batterers tend to have drug and
alcohol problems. Because of this link, battered
women who have not given up the dream often
see treatment for drugs and alcohol abuse as
their ray of hope: “If only he would stop
drinking...everything would be fine”. It is easy
to understand how it is that battered women
develop this belief. Indeed, it may be true that
for some batterers, stopping the substance abuse
will lead to an end to battering. However, the
relationship between substance abuse and
battering is an extremely complex and cannot
be dealt with in such a publication.
Too much emphasis on drug and alcohol abuse
distracts from the central issue: battering is
fundamentally perpetuated by its success in
controlling, intimidating, and subjugating the
battered woman. The types of men who abuse
their partners are also the types of men who
abuse drugs and alcohol a habit that is part of
the lifestyle of the batterer.
However, in rejecting alcohol and drug abuse
as causal explanations for battering, many
theorists in the field of domestic violence have
thrown the baby with the bath water: in fact,
some batterers do only batter while drunk
because the state of intoxication transforms
them.
As things currently stand, the substance abuse
and domestic violence experts typically study
one or the other but not both. And it is perfectly
consistent to hold the position that drug and
alcohol abuse can be one of many causes of
battering on the one hand, and continue to hold
the batterer responsible for the violence on the
other hand.
MYTH: Batterers cannot control their
violent tempers.
FACT: This is another complex issue, because
there is a sense in which all behavior, even
behaviour that is considered as voluntary, is
actually caused by past and current events in
and around our environment. People are all
products of their own unique history, and that
history helps to explain how they respond in
particular situations.
_ ___________
O
But voluntary behaviour involves a choice, and
depending on the outcome one seeks, different
choices will be made. Battering is usually
voluntary. There are some people with temporal
lobe epilepsy whose brains literally trigger
violent outbursts that bear no relationship to
anything that is going on in the environment.
There are some batterers (a small minority)
whose battering rampages are truly impulsive
and uncontrollable, at least in the early stages
of each incident. But in the vast majority of
cases, battering is choice in the same sense that
all other voluntary actions are.
Citing psychological studies Jacobson4, refers
to the “dissociation” often associated with violent
episodes and a batterer (classified above as Pit
Bull). He shows some anecdotal evidence that
some of this type of batterers experience an
altered state of consciousness during battering
episodes. In extreme cases they do not even
remember the episodes afterward. Although
dissociative states are consistent with the
interpretation that they are “out of control”
when they batter, few of the batterers in his
sample described their episodes of violence in a
manner that suggest dissociation. They
remembered the episodes but either minimised
their significance or denied responsibility for
them. Occasionally, they would deny that the
violence had occurred. On the other hand
Jacobson’s interpretation of this denial is that
these batters are lying, using another method
of extending their control over their battered
wives. The relationship between voluntarily
lying and dissociation (truly not remembering)
remains an unresolved issue, to be determined
by future research. But in the vast majority of
violent episodes that occurred among his
sample, although the batters may have
behaving impulsively, they were not out of
control.
MYTH: Battering Often Stops on Its Own.
FACT: It seldom does — on its own! Jacobson’s4
research found that while many men decrease
their level of violence over time, few of them stop
completely. And when they do stop, the emotional
abuse usually continues. This is an important
finding as most research considers only physical
abuse. But emotional abuse can be at least as
effective a method of maintaining control, if the
physical violence was once there. Once the
batterer has achieved dominance through
violence and the threat of more violence,
emotional abuse often keeps the battered woman
in a state of subjugation without the batterer
having to use physical force. Since the violence
FACTS against MYTHS
is used in order to obtain control, it is more
convenient for the batterer to restrict himself to
emotional abuse. That abuse reminds her that
the danger of violence is ever-present, and this
danger is often sufficient to retain control. Any
intervention which defines success without
taking emotional abuse into account will inflate
• its effectiveness. In Jacobson’s sample, although
many batterers decreased the frequency and
severity of their violence over time, almost none
of them stopped completely and also ended the
emotional abuse.
Case Study: Frank stopped being violent for
18 months, and Jane, his wife, was quite happy
about it. If Jacobson and his team had not also
studied emotional abuse, they might have
looked like a couple whose problems had been
solved. But, if anything, they found that Frank
was even more emotionally abusive two years
later than he had been initially, despite ceasi A
the physical violence. He was more insulting,
more verbally threatening, and humiliated
Jane at every opportunity. It all served an
additional function: they reminded Jane of the
violence, and the tightrope she had to walk to
avoid recurrences of that violence. These
reminders were all she needed. Frank
maintained his control without having to risk
breaking the law. Emotional abuse, as
destructive as it is, is not against the law!
MYTH: Psychotherapy is a More Effective
“Treatment” for batterers than jail.
FACT: Prisons being overcrowded judges look
for other ways when given discretion in
sentencing. As psychotherapy is often
recommenced for batterers, judges often find
some referrals for court-mandated treatment
irresistible as alternatives to imprisonment*/
especially since domestic assault charges are
often misdemeanors rather than felonies.
Ironically, what appears at first glance to be a
good alternative to imprisonment is often a
mistake. Jacobson points out that there is very
little evidence that currently existing treatment
programmes for batterers are effective, and
much reasons to be concerned that in their
present form, they'are unlikely to stop the
violence and even less likely to end the
emotional abuse. Yet social workers among
others believe in psychotherapy, and battered
women are no exception. Therefore, when their
husbands are “sentenced” to psychotherapy
they may be lulled into a false sense of security,
thus leading them to return home from a
shelter falsely convinced they are now very safe.
4
Case Study: Roy had been to therapy once,
and Helen received glowing reports from the
anger-management therapist. Roy received 16
weeks of group therapy, and his therapist wrote
the following during an evaluation at the
conclusion of the course:
“In my professional opinion, Roy no longer
constitutes a danger to is wife, Helen. He
has been a model patient. He has accepted
responsibility for being a batterer, has shown
no inclination to repeat the violence from
the past, and even stands a chance of
qualifying for work as a therapist himself,
working with batterers who have not yet
developed the insight that has changed Roy’s
life’’.
Naturally, Helen was quite excited to make
things work with the new Roy. But Roy’s
therapist had been fooled. And Roy’s therapist
Siad inadvertently misled Helen. Less than two
months after the group treatment had ended,
Roy came at Helen with a knife, nearly killing
her.
Violent criminals who assault strangers are
seldom offered psychotherapy as an alternative
to prison, in contrast to perpetrators , of wife
battering. What does this information convey
about the judicial system and how it views
“family violence”? Family violence is still
regarded as less serious than violence against
strangers, even though most women who are
murdered are not killed by strangers but by
boyfriends, husbands, ex-husbands and ex
boyfriends but accountability is a prerequisite
to decreased violence
Jacobson believes that referrals to
.psychotherapy, in the absence of legal
"sanctions, send the wrong signals to batterers:
they have got away with a violent crime with
nothing but a minor punishment. An excellent
illustration of this is the O.J Simpson trial in
the US. In 1989, he pleaded “no contest” to the
charge of misdemeanor assault, after beating
his wife. He received a small fine and was
ordered to seek treatment. The treatment ended
up being nothing more than a few sessions,
some of which were conducted by phone. The
same applies to the former world heavyweight
boxer, Mike Tyson. Americans today know just
how ineffective this “punishment” and the
treatment that was required of him were. There
should not be any illusions on the rehabilitative
power of prison, but at least it stops the violence
temporarily and gives the battered woman time
to make plans. It also sends a powerful signal
to the batterer.
FACTS against MYTHS
Consider also the ability of the most violent
batterers to hoodwink judges, police, social
workers and therapists. The Cobra type (see
above) will figure out what the therapist wants
him to say, sound contrite, be counted as a
success, and yet all that has been accomplished
is that the system has been exploited by him.
MYTH: Battered women can easily leave
their violent partners if they so desired but
why don’t they?
FACT: The question itself is flawed. It deflects
attention from the real question: "Why does he
beat her”? Or, “Why doesn’t he go?”
Battered women do not remain in the
relationship because they enjoy the battering.
They may feel trapped and unable to leave or
the battering had made her lose all her selfesteem. Battering often increases at their point
of separation, and battered women may
actually feel safer staying. If they have
children, they may feel that they will not be
able to support themselves and their children
if they leave. People whom they turn to for
support — friends, family, neighbours, police,
among others — may be uninformed about the
battering and may not take the situation
seriously. They may know about the existence
of shelters or women’s groups for battered
women but they may feel that moving to shelter
in a new area or city will lead to a great deal of
dislocation for themselves or for their children
(who will have to change schools while they
take shelter). While they have been living with
abuse for a long time they may be so worn down
and shattered emotionally that they simply
cannot imagine a better option.' Or she harbours
hopes of their relationship will improve.
At a deeper level, this myth actually assumes a
fact that most battered women do stay in
abusive relationship. But they are not to be
blamed for staying. In the West, they do leave
at high rates. In India, however, battered
women lack such an easy option. Indian women
choose to stay in an abusive relationship for a
number of reasons: for religious or cultural
beliefs; the impression that it is her "duty" to
keep the marriage and family together, no
matter to what it costs her; guilt about leaving
her children with the abusive father;
At any rate, the wife’s leaving is often an act of
courage because it means having to cope with
enormous fear as well as financial insecurity.
Further, after being subjected to physical and
emotional abuse for a period of time, women
are systematically stripped of their self-esteem,
5
to the point where they falsely believe that they
need their husbands in order to survive, despite
the violence. This lowering of self-esteem is often
part of a constellation of symptoms that are
common to survivors of trauma. Such women
suffer trauma similar to that of soldiers in
combat, abused children, and rape victims
(many battered women are also raped by their
husbands). These symptoms include depression,
anxiety, and a sense of being detached from
their bodies and numb to the physical world,
nightmares, and flashbacks of violent episodes.
The syndrome characterised by these symptoms
is known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)4.
Consequently, their parenting abilities get
affected, their problem-solving abilities are
impaired, and their ability to plan for the future
is disrupted. Given this common experience of
trauma, it is amazing that battered women
manage to be as resourceful and resilient as
they are, especially since their lives and the
lives of their children are often at risk. The
corrosive and cumulative effects of battering go
a long way toward explaining how hard it is to
get out of an abusive relationship
The fact that those wives who have not yet left
does not mean that there is something wrong
or odd about them. The point is that it is easier
to get into an abusive relationship than it is to
get out of one.
MYTH: As the head ofthe family a man can
do whatever he wants to his wife as she
deserves such treatment.
FACT: No man has the right to beat a woman
or even his wife or partner. Nothing a woman
does gives a man the right to beat her, even if
he thinks she deserves it - even if she herself
thinks she deserves it.
No woman ever deserves battery. Assaulted
women report a wide range of incidents that
trigger violence. The study by the International
Centre for Research on Women in Gujarat, for
instance, (mentioned above), noted that 50 per
cent of women were abused for not preparing
the meals correctly; 48 per cent were abused
for not taking proper care of the children; 8 per
cent for their inability to manage the home, and
1 per cent for brining in inadequate dowry.
MYTH: Only poor ignorant and mad or
demented men beat their wives or partners.
FACT: Violence is not merely a problem of
poverty or ignorance. Violence can and these
days often does take place in the home; rich or
C FACTS against MYTHS
poor, educated or less educated, in urban or in
rural areas. However, violence in more affluent
groups is often hidden because these women
use shelters, legal aid, and other social services
less often.
Moreover, wife battery being so widespread it
cannot all be owing to men being mentally
unsound or deranged. Studies show that most
men who batter their wives or partners are very
non-violent outside their homes. They rarely
are abusive to their colleagues or employers!
When abusive men batter their partners they
are careful to do so in a manner that physical
injuries usually do not show. If abusive men
were really mentally ill they could not limit their
violence in this way.
MYTH: It is wrong to interfere with the
private affairs of a couple. It is their
concern and nobody else’s business.
FACT: Violence in the home is not just a family®
matter. Many women are grievously hurt or
even killed. Violence is a social and community
health issue.
Above all, 'sexuality in India, ironically, has
been made a public matter - -through an
archaic law, viz., Section 377 of the IPC, which
outlaws so-called unnatural offences. It states
“whoever voluntarilily has carnal intercourse
against the order of nature with any man;
woman or animal shall be punished with life
imprisonment". This Section legally sanctions
the public disgust and hatred of homosexuals.
Thus, the law makes citizens criminals subject
to life imprisonment.
This law affects a whole gamut of civil and
criminal laws that deny gays and lesbians the
right that herterosexuals take for granted. AmMfe
this myth claims that the sexuality of Indians
is a private affair!!
MYTH: Both Men and "Women Batter.
FACT: This is a backlash against the campaign
on behalf of battered women. There are even
those who claim that a big underground
movement of bettered husbands e.g. in Mumbai
refuse to tell their stories because they are:
(supposedly) reluctant to be identified as
“weaklings”.
To support these claims, there are reports4 that
cite statistics from surveys that the frequency
of violent acts is about the same in men and
women. However, these statistics conveniently
overlook two important points on this issue: a)
the impact of the violence and its function.
Citing statistics by a research centre in New
6
York, Jacobson, states that male violence 'does
much more damage than female violence:
women are much more likely to be injured, more
likely to enter the hospital after being assaulted
by their partner, and much more likely to be in
need of medical care. Wives are much more
likely to be killed by their husbands than the
reverse; in fact, women in general are more
likely to be killed by their male partners than
by all other types of perpetrators combined, b)
Because men are generally physically stronger
than women, and because they are often
socialised to use violence as a method of control,
it is hard to find women who are even capable
of battering their husbands. However,
battering is not just physical aggression: it is
physical aggressing with a purpose. Battering
often involves injury, and in Jacobson’s sample,
it was usually accompanied by fear on the part
of the victim. Fear is the force that proves
.ttering with its power. Injuries help sustain
e fear. The vast majority of physical assaults
are shoves, and other relatively minor acts of
violence including eve teasing.
K
All indications are that in heterosexual
relationships, battering is primarily something
that men do to women, rather than the reverse.
However, there are cases of battered women
who are violent, mostly, but not always, in self
defense. Battered women are living in a culture
of violence, and they are part and parcel of that
culture. Some battered women defend
themselves: they hit back, and might even hit
or push as often as their husbands do. But they
are the ones who are beaten up. On a survey
that simply totals the frequency of violent acts,
they might look equally violent. But there is
no question that in most relationships the man
the batterer, and the woman is the one who
is being battered.
MYTH: 'Women often provoke men into
battering them.
FACT: This myth has the support of even some
mainstream professionals, like family
therapists, among others.
However, it is men who initiate violence
independently of what their wives do or say.
Among certain therapists it is not surprising to
hear the “advice”: If you would stop using that
language, perhaps your husband would not get
so upset or out of control”. Husbands wear this
comment like a badge of honour and even refer
to their wive’s swear words as “violence”. In
the husband’s view, she started the violence
whenever she swore at him. Some therapists
FACTS against MYTHS
appear to support this view. In such situations,
the wife never felt understood by the therapist,
but the outcome of the treatment was that she
blamed herself for the battering and thought
that the solution was “to be a better wife”.
Even if the husband’s violence is a response to
remarks made by the wife, it is an error to think
of these remarks as “provocations”. Provocation
implies that “she got what she deserved”.
Husbands believe they are justified in beating
their wives because she had an “attitude” about
him being late from work. Batterers make
choices when they beat their wives. There is
no remark or behaviour that justifies a violent
response unless it is in self-defence.
There is a philosophy of marriage inherent in
patriarchy that women provoke men to be
violent. It maintains that the man is the head
of the family, the boss. Their authority is
devinely revealed and thus they are justified
in beating their wives. In more recent times it
means viewing the wife as someone who
deserve to be beaten under certain conditions.
Wives never deserve to be beaten by their
husbands. Battering is a criminal act, and
verbal challenges from the wife do not
constitute mitigating circumstances.
MYTH: Battered women could stop the
battering by changing their own
behaviour.
FACT: Battering cannot be changed through
actions on the part of the victim. Battering has
little to do with what the women do or do not
do, what they say or do not say. It is the
batterer’s duty — and his alone —to stop being
abusive. There were no triggers of the violence
on the part of the men, or were there any
switches available for turning if off once it got
started.
REFERENCES
Poonachaa, V., Coping with Domestic
Violence, One India, One People,
September, Mumbai 1999.
2. Nimbalkar, Mrs. S.W., Violence Against
Dalit Women, Roshni, New Delhi.
3. Kelkar, G., Violence Against Women,
Indian Institute of Advanced Studies,
Shimla, 1992.
4. Jecobson, N., Gottman, J., Breaking the
Cycle: New Insights into Violent
Relationships, Bloomsbury, London, 1998.
1.
7
GENDER VIOLENC
Sex
The man insults the
woman, huts her
down, or mokes
her think she
going
crazy.
mon contro/s
O
everything the
woman does—who
she sees and talks to.
and where she goes.
rhe mon mokes
the woman do sexual
things against her will.
or physically attacks
the sexual parts
The
of her body. He
man tries
treats her like
to keep the
an object.
woman from getting
Power
Control
♦* The man uses a look, ortiun.
es
A tone of voice, nr makes
threats, that make the
&
woman feel afra.d
The mon
uses the fact
Y* K that he win
mot he is a
hurt her.
as an excuse
tn I'roi the woman
•kc i .MurtJnt. He
rirmfr decisions
make
and :e*.s hrr that as a
The
o job or making her own •^,^1
money. He mokes her ask
him for any money she needs. O \
Or he may force her to work and
then take the money she earns.
•=
The man says that the
abuse did not really
happen, that it was
not serious. or
that it was
the woman s
man jses
fault.
the children
to make the
woman fee! guilty,
or to hurt her
AGr*>tic she has no
• 9
right to object.
e
Source: Women Have No Docter, 1997.
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Facts Against Myths is a monthly bulletin offactual
information on a number ofdevelopment myths and
fallacies, etc, including information against alien
development models, paradigms and false concepts
on caste, creed and gender.
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