Last week I shared a piece on the profoundly moving stories of the women I encountered on my travels through Eastern India. I composed that post after I came back to the hotel that evening more so as a way of easing my own emotions after being moved so deeply. The initial emotion that we tend to experience as human beings when hearing something so disturbing is that of sadness however as that feeling slowly began to dissipate I began to go through a whole another array of sensations.
Firstly there was shock, I am never failed to be utterly disgusted by the depths of cruelty than we as a human race are capable of. But beyond that I felt despair and anger which then drove me to understand my role in needing to speak openly about this endemic trend of sexual violence against women and women with disabilities. We often hear about gender based violence in the context of ‘against all women’. However the nuances that occur when perpetrated against women with disabilities are even more dire. The truth is women with disabilities are 3-4 times more likely to experience physical and sexual violence in their lifetimes than their non-disabled peers. A recent WHO study found that girls with intellectual disabilities or mental health impairments are staggeringly 4.6 times more likely to experience sexual violence than girls without disabilities.
The trend here indicates that women with disabilities are targeted for a wide array of reasons but at the heart of these is the thinking that perpetrators are more likely to get away with their crimes due to the disability status of their victims. This comes down to the thinking that these women will not be likely to tell their stories or that the stigma associated with their impairments will mean they are not believed by local authorities.
Added to the trauma of violence and abuse is the shame that is thrust on these women by their own households and communities. As is synonymous with the gender biased consequences of sexual violence it always seems to be the victim who is blamed. What was she doing to warrant the attack? What was she wearing? How was she conducting herself? Because of these factors well of course she was asking for it. In the circumstance of women with disabilities while this element may not be as prominent, it is still seen as the woman’s burden to carry for the fall out of her own assault.
In most circumstances these crimes are denied, swept under the carpet or hushed by families wanting to salvage some part of their daughter’s ‘honour’. As if being raped is more of a tarnishing factor on one’s reputation than actually being the perpetrator of this action itself.
Until we change the discourse of how we perceive sexual violence nothing will move forward for the equality of women worldwide. The victim blaming mentality and the stigma attached to being subjected to such heinous acts of violence needs to eradicated.
We need to teach young men that pack mentalities and harmful portrayals of machismo are a hindrance to the progress of their own abundant lives as well as those closest to them. We have to address the mindset of entitlement and toxic masculinity that is fuelling this kind of intimidation, harassment and violence and call it out for what it is. And most important of all we need to stop sweeping things under the carpet in order to ‘protect a woman’s reputation’.
Sx
I blog for Change. 