Across the world, it has been acknowledged that gender-based violence in many societies has reached crisis levels. And though much has been done over the years, the world is far off from ending gender based violence due to many factors, especially issues of gender inequalities and societal or cultural norms as well as traditional practices that encourage such behaviours and enforce a culture of silence among the people.
Gender-based violence is any harm or suffering that is perpetrated against a woman or girl, man or boy that has a negative impact on their physical, sexual or psychological health, development or identity; though women and girls are mostly affected by it, globally, it is said that at least one third of all women have been exposed to violence in an intimate relationship but men and boys can also be victims of violence.
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For diverse advocacies to be successful and for people to become emboldened to talk of violence and abuse irrespective of the status of who is involved, to curb such occurrences, there is a need for the society to be vocal and obvious in its stand against gender-based violence before there can be measureable change.
It is the responsibility of everybody in the society, individually or collectively to bring about a change; breaking the culture of silence is too deep rooted to be left only to activists and organisations; gender violence feeds from imbalances and inequality in power which is rooted in patriarchy and the tradition that beliefs women have no say in issues especially policy and decision making.
What created the culture of silence and why does is hold the people despite advocacy? It is due to ineffective laws that have no provisions for supporting women, a culture that makes abuse a family affair and enforcement officers too steeped in tradition to focus on what the law says and still operate with cultural bias and expectations among many such issues rooted in negative cultural norms that are passed down generations. And because of this, there is a need for societies as a necessity to open itself up to explore the culture of silence as a major factor that promotes gender violence among other root causes. The society must be willing to as an entity to tackle every underlying cause of gender-based violence and every system that facilitates it.
The cycle of silence must be broken and long-held feelings of shame eradicated; it is time for the world to put an end to the prevailing situation where victims of violence dare not talk about their experience for fear of intimidation, shame and isolation among other things, a world where women cannot hold their heads up high and claim their rights and where the victim is further blackmailed emotionally by people who should protect them and gives the perpetrator the chance to move on and continue his devilish acts.
Violence against women has been said to weaken communities, stunt economy and erode common values. This has an effect on the community as a whole, consequently, every member of the society must work to put an end to factors that exacerbate it; gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, beliefs, attitudes and the patriarchal systems that gag women and gives them no choice in issues that affect them.
As laws are being made to end all forms of violence against women, there needs to be a focus on the role of the society in breaking the culture of silence as part of national and international action plans to put an end to gender based violence and a deep rooted resistance to behaviour change that makes advocacy ineffective.
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