Today is a significant day, yet few people seem to know. Perhaps overshadowed by Thanksgiving or the holiday season, today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
This day was first commemorated in Latin America to remember three brave women who stood up against violence and terror.
During the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, three sisters of the Mirabel family were activists and visible symbols of resistance. On Nov. 25, 1960, they were assassinated in an \accident"" while driving to visit their husbands in prison. The accident caused an outcry and enraged the nation. This assassination helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement, and within a year the dictatorship ended. The sisters became known as the ""Unforgettable Butterflies"" and a symbol against the victimization of women.
Violence against women remains as much of a problem now as it did in the days of the Mirabel sisters. Mainstream media often do not report these atrocities.
Since 1993, more than 750 young women in the Mexican border town of Juarez have been abducted, raped, murdered or just disappeared. The authorities have failed to stop the killings or jail the murderers.
In Pakistan, human rights activists estimate that three women a day die as a results of being burned alive by their spouses or in-laws. Most of these involve men pouring kerosene on a woman and setting her on fire. Reasons vary, but most cases are tied to a failure to give birth to a son, the desire to marry a second wife or long-running animosity with mothers-in-law.
For many women, something as simple as obtaining water or walking to a toilet can be dangerous. In shantytowns outside Johannesburg, South Africa, women have reported to the United Nations that they fear walking to the community latrines, due to the high incidence of rape in such communities. Women say they would rather wait all night than risk the short walk in the dark.
Human rights organizations have documented incidence of the targeting of women in civil conflict worldwide. Women have been tortured, maimed, raped and killed--at times disemboweled to kill a fetus and its mother--in the Balkans wars, during the genocide in Rwanda and most recently in anti-Muslim riots in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Lest we become self-righteous, violence permeates the life of American women, too. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, nearly one-third of women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Here in Madison there have been several alarming recent sexual assaults, including one at West High School and a few near James Madison Park.
Use today to remember the victims. Take it upon yourself to learn more. One excellent source is http://www.womensenews.com which reports news on issues from all over the world and offers suggestions of how to help. These crimes breed on silence--the first step to stopping them is to inform yourself and others of the daily challenges and threats woman around the world face.
