The Facts on Violence Against Women

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What is Violence Against Women?

The United Nations defines violence against women as “Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

A word about statistics.

When it comes to statistics relating to violence against women and children it’s important to know that you don’t have to be a math expert to understand the numbers.  You simply have to be willing to recognize that each statistic represents a woman, child, or family — a life — torn apart by violence and abuse.

Violence against women includes, but is not limited to:

• Gender-based violence

• Rape, marital rape and incest

• Murder and assault including dowry-related violence and honour killings

• Forced marriage

• Female genital mutilation

• Human trafficking including cross-border prostitution rings and bride kidnappings

• War crimes including rape as a weapon of war

What are the roots of Violence Against Women?

• Pakistan is a male-dominant society, male privilege becomes the norm and contributes to the belief and behaviour of men that they have the right to control women.

• Violence against women is rooted in unequal power relationships between men and women in society. In a broader context, structural relationships of inequalities in politics, religion, media and discriminatory cultural norms perpetuate violence against girls and women.

• Violence against women is a global problem and not limited to a specific group of women in society. However, the forms of violence might be shaped differently based on factors such as sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, class, age, nationality.