What is Gender Based Violence?

by Aysha Qamar

Violence against women is a term designed to explain various human rights violations directed towards women and girls.

• Emotional/Mental

• Physical

• Financial

• Sexual

There is no single form of violence that is greater an another, violence and the trauma associated with it varies from one person to another.

Education and fiances are not the answer as domestic violence is an issue that impacts all types of people not only those who are not educated.

Several variables affect and prevent South Asian survivors from disclosing acts of domestic and sexual violence to authorities:

• Cultural and Social Pressures

  • The ideology of good wife and mother

  • Strict loyalties to family and culture

  • Fear and distrust of legal authorities

  • Bias against divorce

  • The idea that facing the violence is easier than talking to the community about it

  • For male survivors the stigma that men cannot be victims and that men must hold the power

• Limited access to resources

  • Fluency in English and communication style

  • Legal residency status – immigration used as a tool of control

  • No finances-- despite being educated many survivors have limited access to their finances because they are controlled by the abuser

Below is a graphic that depicts the cycle of violence, by the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence