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Violence Against Women: a Cross-Cultural Perspective

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Violence Against Women: a Cross-Cultural Perspective
A reading response through question 1 to the article titled:
Violence Against Women: A Cross-Cultural Perspective by Nora ALMOSAED
ELIAS KHALIL – Section 1 – ID no. 201001643
In the text, the relationship is made between women’s subordinate status and violence against them. What are the implications of power relations and status here? How do these affect the state of the Middle East today? All throughout history, men have dealt with women as being subordinate, which is mainly due to the fact that they are physically superior to the latter. This phenomenon has had huge implications on most societies, where men absolutely hold the monopoly of government, politics and economics. Violence against women is in this context the direct cultural consequence of these non-balanced power relations between men and women. Unfortunately, the practical historical legitimacy of this phenomenon that violence against women is has made it part of the social subconscious repertoire for solving problems among society in general and family members in particular. A flagrant example to this is that of crimes of “honor”, where many women have to pay the decayed traditions and retarded unjustified violence of men with their lives. Such crimes are very common in the Middle East to this very day. While the world is moving towards further involvement of women in the political and economical lives in their countries, the Middle East populations seem to be well in coma on this level, which explains why women in such countries suffer more from home battering and other types of violence. This situation jeopardizes the future of most societies in the Middle East, as they are attempting to ride the train of modernity and democracy and openness, while absolutely not developing public awareness on vital issues such as tolerance of differences between people and more specifically violence against
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