For ages, the ghoul of rape and violence against women has been left unrestrained, the society and cultural tendencies have fueled the escalation of the drift by ignoring its paroxysm and creating a lax environment for it to subsist. Cultural norms, belief systems and attitudes towards the victims of the social mis-deeds have played a key role in entertaining the incessant existence of the trends. The society has been permissive by endorsing control tactics on women so that the victims of the misdemeanor become the offenders. All the tactics are based on a variety of personal and cultural beliefs which prop up support for the crime architects causing them to feel unconstrained to ill-treat and abuse their female counter parts.
Cultures across the globe have soared a postulation on male gender giving them dispensation over women, the ancient society in general gave men the advantage over women which stirred them to maim and maltreat them. Diverse cultures have relentlessly held the fallacy that women have less value than men, and they should be blamed for the assault s they receive Other warped up cultures indoctrinate men and women to believe that belligerent men are champions and should be admired while the normal women are deemed as the passive characters.
Women from all walks of life continue to deal with the phantom of violence and rape abuses; Irrespective of the educational and social classes women continue to suffer violence, a drift heightened by social norms and cultural factors. Rape and women maltreatment is viewed in the mirror of cultural indoctrination, people’s perceptions are shaped by the values and mind sets entombed in their living upbringing. Millions of women are exposed to the danger of being raped and being physically assailed owing to the largely acceptable climate of apathy towards crime perpetrators fashioned by various cultures and religions. Myriad cultures accept climate of indifference towards women garnering many forms of violence against them. Ultimately, women are maimed, chocked and assaulted and their right to participate fully in social development is throttled.
Introduction
There is an ubiquitous belief stating that culture justifies violence against women to operate and dominate the conventional societies only, and it does not broaden to the modern societies which are fully integrated in the global political system. This school of thought necessarily justifies that; violence against women is intrinsically embedded in particular religions or the rearward cultures. In spite of of where or when violence against women occurs or the manner of its manifestation, violence on women is constantly legitimized by the dictates of culture (Rusell 2005).This fact is true because all societies have a systematic culture which determines how people relate to each other and how they generally treat women.
Conspicuously, the patriarchal culture which is predominantly everywhere in the world is the overriding force behind all morals and ethics of the world. Arguably, the patriarchal culture inexorably corroborates violence as a suitable, even popular, quality of manliness (Young, 2003). The masculinity attribution of patriarchal system arch a way to concurrently cheapen all the feminine attributions such as gentleness, caring and humbleness on both persons and relationships. In this case patriarchy ignites to the culture attributions which imbibe the essence of felinity amongst the women. Thus, culture acts as the conduit through which violence against women is enthused and ripened to subjugate and undermine the worth of the female gender.
Since patriarchal system inherently legitimatizes violence, automatically the socially devalued members of the society such as women and children become prey to the whims of the superseding male cluster. Acts executed to wield the masculinity of the male gender, eventually become accepted and are transformed to norms which are socially acceptable and never questioned. Accordingly, explicit and implied cultural legalization for aggression against women is embedded in present-day political discourses and all through official state laws and in old fashioned societies and their practices. The only way to win war against the violence veered against women is by replacing the insidious culture of patriarchal antagonism with culture of peace to make certain justice is available for all (Williams, 1999). This would create a social space for enhancing problem resolution, pilfering away acrimony.
How Cultural Indoctrination Creates A Vacuity For Rape And Violence To Bloom
Indoctrination is a systematical usually prolonged process of instilling ideas, beliefs, values and perceptions in an individual to conform him to a certain canon causing him to develop intransigent reaction mechanism to the world around him and fellow men (Gobash, 2002) Culture passes on dogmatic ideas which are usually unquestioned and are easily absorbed by individuals in order for them to comply with socially acceptable norms and credence. The disparity between indoctrination and education is that indoctrination brain washes and compels an individual to act in an explicit way without giving him a room to question or to filter through the knowledge being offered. Thus culture not only teaches people how to behave but also compels them to follow a given creed or face the repercussion of contravening the social dictat.
Human behavior is shaped by his genetical inheritance or the attained experience through social contact. Every body is born into a social milieu constituting of family, society, friends, neighbors, language, religion and community. All these factors play a key role in establishing how an individual conducts himself and treats their fellow men. The inherent characteristics of a culture play a massive role in determining how a child behaves amongst others and in the social setting (Rusell 2005) in the family setting parents utilize instruction, recompense, and punishment in the endeavor to mold the character of a child.
In the outside world however, children are exposed to school, neighborhood, religion and the law enforcement institutions which further dictate how an individual should act and interact with the others. Culturally attained behavior patterns becomes to embedded in an individuals mannerism so much that an individual operates without being fully aware of his mannerism(Williams, 1999). Each set of a culture exerts its own distinct pattern of meanings, for example some cultures have specific rules on how women should dress, address the men, and conduct themselves in the public(Nash, 2007). For instance in Muslim societies women are supposed to wear long clothes and cover their faces with veils to uphold morality and deter men’s sexual temptations. A woman brought up in that culture grows up indoctrinated that men are superior to her and that she should show respect to men by covering her body.
On the other hand a man bred in such an Islamic background would treat a woman as a weaker partner and would expect her to adhere to all his dictates whether they are offensive or not since the culture has programmed him to view women as second-rate humans who deserve to be treated awfully(Rusell 2005) The two parties in this case may not be behaving in the conventionally acceptable manner as far as the outside cultures are concerned but they only act under the social paradigm in which they co exist according to the values and attitudes shaped by their immediate environment. Thus they are instructed to follow the cultural dogma which does not give room for questioning or arguments. Reasonable or irrational distinctions on what is desirable or not, are interpreted differently depending on the culture within which an individual operates (Nash, 2007).
Culture infuses in the appliance and interpretation of social conduct beyond any legal formulations. Cultural laws are administered by people and the vast majority of the group entrusted with social morality and ethics is men (Williams, 1999). Naturally, the culture is twisted and in this case to errand men so that they structure formulations which overlook the welfare of women giving men advantage over the female counter parts. Textual prejudices aligned with women are accentuated by cultural beliefs of the social elders and the judges mandated to bring forth justice since they are products of a culture which unsurprisingly demeans the women garroting their rights. A case study in the Pakistan reveals that courts overlook men who murder their female counterparts when the offenders allege that they had acted aggressively after suspecting that their women were involved in extra marital affairs (Thornhill, 2002)
Research has established that men who ill-treat women especially in the family unit often use violence to hassle the women so that they can have it their way without being questioned. Patriarchal culture gives men the right to behave as they wish since they are protected by the structures of the patriarchal culture. A looming apparition has been tormenting the family unit where men belief that they should be sturdy powerful and the head of the homes who should not be questioned since they are the overall overseers of the families. Consequently, men are placed at an upper hand to make decisions which may be inclined to favor them. These kind of cultures places men at an upper realm so that they are automatically entitled to have sex with their partners, whether they like it or not (Elias, 2001). Men are not entitled to take responsibility for their actions since the culture gives them the pious position freeing them from any obligations after committing a social misdeed.
Underpinnings of the Culture And Legal Law In Relation To Gender Violence.
A very salient feature of the law is that it is mired by both biases and cultural sway of the milieu in which it operates. In other wards, law tends to be inclined towards the cultural perceptions and values of the setting in which it’s implemented. Culture is prominently seen in the text of law through explicit regulatory parameters, proscription and instructions (Elias, 2001). People make law referring back to their inherently acquired norms and values which are picked out from the culture some legal silences are also deduced from the culture. For instance in Middle East and Pakistan where the culture shows overt lenience towards female genital mutilation,(FGM) there are no such laws implemented to counter such pitiless acts since the culture easily accepts them as conventional cultural way of living(Rensen, 2004).
On the other hand, the European and American cultures which doom violence against women as bestiality, laws are formulated to inhibit occurrence of any violent activities on the women(Gunderson, 2008) Once mistreated in the American context women would file law suit against their husbands since law is established to pilfer away such evil acts. However, women in Midlle East, Pakistan or in some parts of Africa would not file a law suit against their abusers since their legal laws and cultures are lenient enough allowing men to abuse and ill- treat women without being punished(Williams, 1999)
Whilst some Asian cultures pursue family honor and dignity, American and European cultures seek to exert, safety and human welfare. Men in the permissive cultures interpret violence as a privileged act of restoring honor, thus when they abuse their women they don’t have any qualm of whim compelling them to stop. A report written by Human Right commission in Pakistan in the year 1998 exerted that, women who refused to translate to Muslim in Pakistan were raped and subjugated in order to convert to Muslim faith (Abane, 1998). This malevolence was treated as an holy act of broadening the Muslim faith and in that context men treated it as an acceptable behavior towards the female gender. The western culture generally respects people’s right to their own bodies and their own decisions (Gunderson, 2008) violent abuses and rape are treated with uttermost disdain, thus men bred in such cultures treat such acts as repulsive and dehumanizing.
Law in a particular culture decrees some statutes against criminal acts, at the same time law remains silent on the issues which it does not categorize as crime. Relative to female based violence, the cultural reinforcement of the law is evident in various countries; for instance, law in the Muslim oriented societies does not criminalize domestic violence, this silence in the law statutes simply implies that domestic violence is an acceptable way of life Thornhil 2002). Domestic violence is very prominent because men have been given the overall mandate to control and dictate the way their wives and children should behave. The law is also quite on issues related to marital rape, since women are seen as sex objects and have no right over their bodies for as long as they are married(Gunderson, 2008). For failing to criminalize these barbaric acts in the Muslim law there is an ample proof that forced intercourse and violence against women is not a crime in relation to the Muslim societies (Young, 2003).
The proclivity to pardon violent crime committed by men against women in the Muslim setting gives the Muslim men the impudence to treat their women as they deem correct since the culture creates a loophole for anarchy to exist. Consequently, men brought up in the Muslim culture do not perceive rape or violence against women as a felony since their culture and society is mute in regard to such acts. In the context of south Asia the law gives a provision for ‘grave and sudden provocation’ clause (Gunderson, 2008) The clause states that men should be dealt with moderately showing lenience for their violent misdemeanor towards women; in the presence of evidence that the provocation of a woman was so severe to make their consequent violent act justifiable warranting them a less punishment (Rensen, 2004). In other wards the law creates a get-out whereby a violent man offender will be punished in relation to what the offended did to provoke him. Instead of punishing the criminal, the misdeed is excused as an understandable crime which can be ignored.
Sadly, patriarchy has encroached and still mired the legal law texts because laws were traditionally formulated and implemented by men. The men have always had the sanction to set out rules and recommend the retaliatory measures for punishing a crime, in this case the law is generally men’s practice, mired by their one sided opinions and experiences(Gunderson, 2008). Men’s opinions are innately etched in the law so that women are browbeaten through the stipulated laws which do not put into consideration the interests of women since they are not involved in the process of formulating laws.
How Rape And Violence Against Women Is Viewed In Relation To Cultural Indoctrination
Violence perpetrated against women takes a multiplicity of forms, raging from verbal and physical abuse, rape, domestic violence, female circumcision and compulsory marriage of young girls (Earvey & Frez, 2003). All the above mentioned aggressions infringe the established human rights and breach peace, consequently inhibiting peaceful co-existence between genders in the society. There are variety of reasons why violence is used against women in the society and these include humiliation, control and intimidation of women so that they can operate under the harsh dictates of the patriarchal governing social system.
The culture and traditional belief system plays a massive role in heightening the dominance of violence against women. Some cultures and religion view women as property, and time and again as sexual objects (Nash, 2007). It is against this backdrop that men are perverted to debase and lower the status of women so that their rights are overlooked and trampled on. In the global arena, women have been perceived as the transmitters of culture and they symbolize a nation or community (Amidiume, 2003). In essence, when women are attacked the values and the honor of the particular society is in jeopardy. Serious repercussions are accrued to violence against women and these include, unremitting medical problems, psychological problems lethal diseases like AIDS stigma and general social rejection (Cock, 1998).
Violence gravitated against women is the outcome of the communal, financial and political coercion of women within the institutions of society (Gobash, 2002). There are some innately founded values, and attitudes in the society which shore up cruelty against women. It’s paramount to realize that most contemporary cultures shun the trend of violating women and rape, it must however be brought into glare of publicity that all societies have some form of a culture which in most cases tend to support patriarchal system of social governance(Amidiume, 2003). In essence, men don’t choose to be vindictive to their spouse or children, but the culture they are bred in gives them the acquiescence to treat women as lesser human beings. A man who watches his father treat his mother like a servitude, is likely to treat his wife in a similar manner, the culture shapes his values in a distorted manner thus he grows up crooked, lacking the knowledge that his behavioral tendencies are ambivalent.
Patriarchy by design impinges women rights causing the trend of women violation to go sky-high in the various cultures where women are disregarded and treated like objects. Patriarchal culture, egoistically expects women to maintain their status quo by accepting they low status in the society allowing men to walk over them. In the fear of rousing controversy women brought up in such demeaning culture choose to abide by to the one sided laws which reduce them into objects under the mercy of men only to be seen not to be heard (Abane, 1998)
Every culture, religion and community has got coded acceptable behaviors which either shore up violence on women or demeans it thus the problem does not lurk in the men per se but it’s embedded in social statutes and acceptable norms. The patriarchal system is hard to overthrow, but its attributions can be altered to embrace more serene approach to dealing with indifferences garnered as men deal with women.
The patriarchal culture compels women to feel responsible for keeping their families in solid unit; this tenet propels women to keep their families at all costs even at their own expense where in most cases they have to endure violence (Grey, 1999). For instance, in the African women it’s very important for them to be good mothers and wives who try by all means to hold their families together. This they attain by ensuring that their children have a father and that the family is knit together irrespective of the mayhem they may have to put up with. African women would do anything to win the honor of the society as they would never publicly declare that their marriages are facing challenges. When there are problems in the family, African women find it hard to expose family problems to the authority in the fear that they may lose their husbands to jail and destroy the family unit which is very sacred as far as their culture is concerned.
Culture, Religion And Women suppression
Culture could not be equated to religion since religion forms only a facet of culture. Religion influences culture since it appeals to human morals and ethics, dictating in a supreme ways in which people should relate to each other. unfortunately, patriarchal considerations comprise of the prism through which religious construal is undertaken, its not a wonder that on the global realm religions across the globe, that religious understanding has covetously guarded male domination (Atenamo, 2001) For instance, in the Muslim religion, the religious monopoly has ensured that all the daily religious practices, laws and the religious precepts that sustain women rights are neglected or entirely suspended. As a result of this concurrence between he religion and the patriarchal system when there occurs a clash between the two customs overrides the religion so culture is the key thing that determines how women are treated and handled during a conflicting state.
Culture overrides everything, for instance in Pakistan women are killed for marrying men of their own choice(Gunderson, 2008) whilst the religion and the statures of the law uphold adults right to make independent decisions, the women are decapacitated and are not in a position to thwart what the custom dictates. In this case, it is evident that religion is not the vital factor to deter or shore up women violence and oppression in the Muslim societies rather the culture is used as the platform through which social morals are gauged (Jaquier, 2006). It has been established that patriarchal tendencies cut across all the cultures. The components intrinsically interwoven in the patriarchal system include women subordination, violence against offenders and control mechanisms to ensure women are forever downtrodden (Emeagwali, 1995)
The Muslim culture which cuts across the Asian, Arabian and Middle East does not allow women to express innate sexuality before they are married.(Ggola 2007) When a woman dares to indulge in sexual activities before her marriage she risks death and she is totally banished from her society as a Men in Pakistan are indoctrinated by the Muslim dogma that they need to be protected by men and in return they are supposed to subjugate to men totally physically, mentally and psychologically(Emeagwali, 1995) in order to be given the supposedly material fortification, security and protection. Women have been forced to forgo their ambitions in life so that they can live under the rule and provision of men.
Some light that was shade by a report which came from a Pakistani commission on Human Rights in 1999 indicated that only a very small percentage (2%) of Pakistani women are employed in the formal sector (Hersen, 1999). Sadly, a whole 93% of the pakistanian women living in the rural areas are illiterate, the patriarchal system and the religion intentionally keeps them illiterate so that they can exert male dominance on them(Bennett, 2006). The men in the Muslim religion have been indoctrinated to belief that a defiant woman is supposed to be beaten and even killed since they have to uphold their honor in the society at all costs. In the case when a woman is raped, she is treated as the immoral woman not as the victim (Leslie, 1996) when a man wants to foil the integrity of a woman or subjugate her, the best punishment is usually rape since is an activity intended to ostracize a woman and repress her.
In the Muslim culture, when a man lawyer takes up a case to defend a woman who has been violently abused or rapped he often receives death threats from the male counterparts (Edward, 2000). The system is choreographed in such a way that women are trapped by the ruthless religious system and no one can fight for them. When a woman is raped in the context of the Muslim religion she is always treated as the offender, it is always claimed that she did something to provoke the offensive (Ameepoju, 2004) In that case a woman’s honor, reputation and purity is entirely controlled by men. In the year 2006, the Pakistan Human right commission report states that 70% of the Pakistan women are subjected to domestic violence accts of violence included rape, wife abuse, murder, marital rape and acid attacks(Artz, 2003) Religion, which serves as a facet of culture has been used intensely to abuse and demean women. The challenge is that women have been indoctrinated to accept such abuses as way of life, thus there is no way out of the vicious cycle of abuse for they is no one to stop or the malevolence.
Conclusion
Culture is the fabric which holds the society together; people view each other and relate to each other through the cultural platform. What one culture deems as hostile and criminal may not be true to another culture. In that case individual perceptions and behavioral tendencies are shaped by culture and the immediate environment of upbringing. It is not a wonder therefore some people treat violence and rape against women as acts of honor. The brain wash inculcated through culture is hard to die, since people are constrained from resisting cultural precepts. Violence on women and rape will surely ebb away as the world enmeshes into a solid global village. However, the change has to come from within the cultures; women have to stand up and realize that they are not lesser humans and that they have a right to be happy and pursue their dreams. Unless women are empowered to know their rights they will forever be subjugated and veiled with ignorance.
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