Domestic Violence & Culture Seminar

Jayalakshmi was burned by her husband who claimed she was cheating on him with another man. The acid thrown on her has ruined her life. Now she is a leading activist in the Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW) in Bangalore. Photo: Scott Carney.

The Body Shop Values Team (Deb and I) were fortunate enough to attend a national seminar yesterday called Blaming & Reclaiming Culture:

The Role of Culture in Responding to Domestic and Family Violence.
It was a really great opportunity to learn about the role people's culture plays in domestic violence. The take home lesson is that domestic violence is a breach in people's universal human right to peace and security and so no matter where in the world you are or come from it's still WRONG!
However, a person's culture is the lens through which we see and live our life, so it's vitally important to consider it when designing education, prevention or shelter programs. We have to be careful not stereotype cultures and remember other contributing factors like class, wealth (or lack of wealth), religion, disability or geographical isolation.

What I found interesting is this problem of domestic violence in our society seems to be left up to women to fix. There were only a few men in the room. Danny Blay, Manager of No To Violence, the Male Family Violence Prevention Association which has a specific focus of working with men to assist them to change and end their violent behaviour. Danny said the rates of violence by men towards women is the same in Australia as in other countries.

Because culture is so integral to one's identity it seems to be good advice to challenge the behaviour not the man. Never justify violence - a behaviour- for an emotion (anger, stress etc). Finally, as the keynote speaker, Leti Volpp (Washington University) said: "They burn their women over there (referring to Bride Burning in India), well we shoot our women over here!" They're both shocking domestic violence related crimes and we should continue to campaign to end it no matter what the cultural background.

More:

• BBC Report on India's Dowry Deaths
• Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria
• The Domestic Violence & Incest Resource Centre (DVIRC)
• The Immigrant Women's Domestic Violence Service (IWDVS)
  

- Adam Valvasori - Values Manager - The Body Shop