by Mallika Dutt
I have spent the last 30 years fighting violence against women. And I am hardly alone. Thousands upon thousands of advocates have toiled for decades to — as with HIV/AIDS — bring the issue to public attention and show it for what it is: a global pandemic with countless manifestations and toxic ripples into all levels of society. We did make great strides. But ironically, it took a brutal gang rape and death in Delhi to — finally — make the world start to sit up, stand up, and say enough.
For this reason — even in the face of the recent World Health Organisation report showing that one in three women experience violence, most often at the hands of someone they know — I have more hope now than I have had in 30 years. I believe we are heading for a global tipping point on the issue of our time.
I don’t know why it was Nirbhaya’s rape and murder — amidst so many atrocities every day, around the world — that set things off. But the darkness of her death has exploded light onto this issue. In India, and all around the world, two crucial things have begun to change: one, people understand that violence against women is an urgent global problem, and two, more and more of those people are men.
December in Delhi was the first time we saw men take to the streets — in authentic anger, and in droves — on a so-called “women’s” issue. Since then, we have begun to see men join women in rallying against rape, domestic violence, sexual assault, and the culture that permits and promotes them, from Delhi to Dallas, from South Africa to Steubenville, OH, in Tahrir Square, and more. Today, more and more men are finally making this issue their own.
Men are rejecting discrimination, inequity and violence against women, both in the streets and, importantly, in their homes. Shubham, a young man we interviewed during the Delhi protests, said: “For everything happening in our society today, we often blame outside cultures and people. But the root of this mentality is in our homes. First we have to change the treatment of girls as second-class citizens. We have to end that behaviour and understand that women and men are equal. I spoke to my father about this, and he said, ‘Yes, I was wrong. My thinking was like that because of tradition’.”
For too long, many have assumed that violence against women will end if we just create opportunities for livelihoods, education and healthcare for women and girls. Few have wanted to address violence against women directly and even fewer have wanted to address the gender discrimination and the constructions of masculinity that underlie the pandemic of abuse that women face through their lifetimes. And when we have confronted the violence, we have looked to remedy it with services, law enforcement and legal means. While these are all essential, it is not enough to intervene after the damage is done or worse, when the woman is dead. What we need urgently is prevention.
Lasting, sustainable prevention will come in the form of culture change. Yes, we must demand that the state protect and promote the fundamental human rights of half its citizenry. However, given India’s weak leadership and acute governance crisis, women will have to seize power wherever they can. And men will have to take responsibility for male violence against women by partnering in — and leading — the culture change necessary to enable all people to thrive. Men and women together must build a world in which violence against women is unacceptable. Not long ago, a group of global gender experts deemed India the worst place in the world for women. If we stand together, the “world’s worst place” for women could be the birthplace of a safer world for all. Let us make that happen. We owe it to Nirbhaya and all the millions of women who have lost their lives.
The writer is the founder and president of Breakthrough, a global women’s rights group.
