Gender based violence is a global problem
I was 10 years old when I get harassed in the street; a tall stranger grabbed my body and ran quickly.
I was scared to death and paralyzed even though I was not alone I was holding my mum’s hand while she is standing with my aunt in the market buying something. I could not even shout or tell my mum, I kept looking at him disappearing into the crowds with that scary look in his eyes, it was LUST but I saw it as pure evil and desire to harm, kidnap and kill me. A common feeling for every sexual harassment and rape victim. A real sensation of impeding danger. It was too early to understand what it truly was and what I am going to face on daily bases for years as woman.
It took me years travelling, and working as a doctor with victims of rape and domestic violence in different societies and cultures, to understand that you cannot just blame one culture for it. You see it in different work places where those in positions of power may exploit their authority to perpetrate such behavior. No place is safe. , You see it in Hollywood among celebrities; the movie industry, with fame comes power, and with power comes all forms of sexual harassment.
Violence against women comes also in different subtle forms in the so-called modern western world. As women of color, we sometimes are not taken seriously when seeking healthcare. According to research, about 70% of colored women felt not listened to and ignored by their healthcare providers. Many complicated serious health issues have been treated as somatic symptoms of anxiety and depression instead of listening and making a proper medical inquiry, just because she is a woman of color!
Women experience symptoms of heart attacks differently than men, but because all research is focused on men and many clinicians are not enough experienced in understanding these differences, you can imagine how many cases were misdiagnosed and missed!
Women are easily labeled as crazy, over reactive, and non-logical, for experiencing and showing responses that are not experienced or understood by men.
Talking about violence against women, I cannot pretend to be blind and neutral watching the largest digital and televised genocide in modern history. The genocide that killed and displaced tens of thousands of people in Gaza including women and children. I cannot call myself a woman, a feminist, an activist or a caring human being while ignoring those women who are forced to give birth or have caesarian sections without anesthesia, those women who witness their kids torn to pieces in front of their eyes, denied basic human rights, of safety, shelter, water, dignity and even sanitary products!
At the end, I blame all forms of implicit silence, for violence against any women anywhere of the world. You cannot support women rights somewhere and stay silent and neutral in front of the worst modern atrocities against women in Palestine. This selective activism is hypocrisy!
About the Author - Ghada Al-Bukhaiti is A medical doctor, SCI Fellow and human rights activist and debater from Yemen with more than a decade of work experience in various conflict areas in the Middle East and North Africa. This blog is adapted from her speech at Reclaim the Night Belfast 2023.
