The 25th of November
has been designated by the UN as the International day for the elimination of
violence against women and this year in 2013, there is going to be a 16 day
long campaign to end the violence against women. You may have noticed the
newspaper advertisements of famous football and cricket players of Nepal
pledging their support against women violence. The advertisements go as far as
to say that their goals represent the voice against women violence. Of course
this is a good initiative and seeing the allegiance of such famous players
towards this noble cause and this might encourage some women to actually feel hopeful.
But it is highly improbable that the public awareness, the banners and posters,
the special MaHa serial about this cause and this fortnight campaign is enough
to end or even minimize this violence.
There are many different
behaviors that classify under women violence, like rape, sexual assaults,
sexual harassment, female infanticide, domestic violence and basically all
types of physical abuse; all of which are pertinent to our country. It is
needless to say how unsafe a time it is for women in our country. For those who
were not already aware of this, the numerous rape and sexual assault incidents
that came to light through the national dailies immediately following the well
publicized robbing and rape case of Sita Rai last year, must have done the trick.
Even then only about three in five rape cases made the news, the rest remained
unheard. This fad of reporting occurred rape cases lasted for a couple of
months, along with the famous 'Occupy Baluatar' movement. At that time protests
and rallies were held, women empowerment and the end of women violence slogans
were sung. The media then moved on to replace women violence with another sensational
topic. As the sexual violence cases frequented less often in the newspaper, the
public seemed to be lose interest. Now with the observance of international day
against women violence once more the awareness is raised and public interest
kindled. I do not want to sound like a complete pessimist, but I think it is a
little too late to try to stop woman violence only through public awareness.
