17-02 Violence

When I was eight years of age, I experienced an ugly argument between my parents and saw my father push my mother into a closet and lock the door. He opened it ten minutes later. But my mother proceeded to take my brother and I to a hotel on Centre Island.
And then after work my father visited us with a basket of toys, and while my brother and I played he apologized to my mother and begged her forgiveness.
As a child, I did not know much about domestic violence and this was a mild example. But later as a teenager I tried to get my mother to explain what had happened.
She said that our father was a product of an arranged marriage and he never saw his mother and father either hug or kiss. His father just barked orders and expected obedience. And my father was just behaving in the same way.
But when my parents reconciled, it was because my father promised never to resort to violence and to listen to my mother’s point of view. He promised to act in a more rational way in resolving family differences.
It is difficult to imagine that a third of the women in the world have experienced some form of domestic violence, and usually from the person they are sleeping with.
And what is more important is that children’s behaviour is influenced by what they experience at home.
In just too many societies, the role of women is marginalized, so that violence against women is normalized.
It was 2009, and Mary and I visited Buenos Aires, in Argentina, as part of a cruise to the Antarctic. And while we were there we witnessed a public protest by women’s groups about the high level of violence against women in Argentina. They were claiming that every 40 hours a woman in their country dies from some form of domestic violence. Those women caught the public’s attention and the politicians responded.
Argentina passed a law against “femicide” in 2012, a term I had never heard before. It is about domestic violence, hate crimes against women, honour killing and that kind of thing.
And the law was also about equality in education and places of refuge. And how about electronic leg tags for violent offenders.
And a final provision of the legislation is the provision of micro-credit to help women finance a change in their life.
The women’s movement is powerful and is impacting politics everywhere.
That’s the way I see it anyways.