Page 4430 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 November 2005
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Putting an end to gender-based violence requires the dedication and assistance of all members of the community. Violence against women and girls affects everyone in the community, including men and boys. Men’s lives are personally affected if their girlfriends, wives, daughters, mothers, grandmothers or sisters experience violence or the threat of violence.
Harmful attitudes and beliefs in the community are a large part of the problem. Helping tackle these will help build a community that is safer for women and girls. The majority of men do not condone the use of physical or sexual violence against women and want to help reduce the violence. There are many ways that men in the community and business sectors can play a role to stop violence against women.
Being a strong role model for boys and speaking out against violence are two of the ways. Some perpetrators believe their friends condone their actions, so it is important for men to speak out if their friends, colleagues or mates brag about using physical force against a woman or forcing a woman to have sex. It is also important for men to challenge some attitudes and beliefs of other men in the community. Beliefs such as that women provoke men by the way they dress and talk, men have got uncontrollable sex drives, men are not responsible for their violent behaviours, men cannot help being violent when they drink, nice girls do not get raped, and real men do not take no for an answer are completely unacceptable and should be spoken out against.
White Ribbon Day, held on 25 November each year, is another way men can show their support for ending gender-based violence. On 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly adopted 25 November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which is also marked by UNIFEM’s white ribbon campaign. I am happy to note that this year the ACT branch of the Australian Labor Party has become an official project partner with UNIFEM for this important day.
Women’s groups have been commemorating 25 November as a day to end violence against women for many years. The date was chosen to commemorate the lives of the Mirabal sisters, Dominican Republic political activists. The three sisters—Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa—and their husbands became involved in activities against the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic. Despite Trujillo’s persecution, the sisters continued to actively participate in political activities against the leadership, prompting Trujillo to declare that his two problems were the church and the Mirabal sisters.
On 25 November 1960, the three sisters were assassinated in an “accident” as they were being driven to visit their husbands, who were in prison. The accident caused much public outcry, and shocked and enraged the nation. The brutal assassination of the Mirabal sisters was one of the events that helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement and, within a year, the Trujillo dictatorship came to an end.
The sisters, referred to as the “unforgettable butterflies”, have become a symbol against victimisation of women. They are symbols against prejudice and stereotypes, and their lives raised the spirits of all those they encountered and later, after their deaths not only those in the Dominican Republic but others around the world. It was 20 years after their deaths that a meeting of women’s groups in Columbia decided that the murder of the
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