Thursday, November 19th, 2009 - 3 comments

Domestic violence: What must be done

Violence against women, above all domestic violence, should be addressed from different perspectives.

At the governmental level in all countries, violence against women should be prevented with proper policies punishing the perpetrators.

Even if it is not preventive, I consider it very important with a short term physical and psychological support to the victims. To do this it is very important to have educated doctors and nurses, especially in the emergency rooms where women will probably end up in the case of severe injuries. These professionals should be trained to recognize the signs of violence from injuries, or confessions from the victims. And they should also be trained to ask the right questions in the right way.

I personally know of non-profit organizations working on these topics, but these organizations are almost entirely composed by females.

I know that there are some men organizing with the White Ribbon Campaign, against VAW (Violence Against Women).

Of course I think it is important that also men become better organized and get involved to stop domestic violence – above all in traditional patriarchal, chauvinist and sexist contexts. I believe it is probably more likely for men to be more receptive to other men who speak of this topic.

This blog-post is a response to the blog-post “A call to action: Your views on men and domestic violence”.

The views expressed in this blog-post are solely those of the author.