Violence against women is a global concern and the Bahamas is right up there with the rest of the world.
Ms. Curry, Director of Department of Gender and Family Affairs for the Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development said during a press conference last week for the Say No Violence campaign The Zonta Club of The Bahamas is organizing this upcoming week.
“One in three women in their adulthood would’ve faced some form of violence based on a global statistic from The United Nations office for drug and crime”, according to Ms. Curry.
Ms. Curry did state that such report was from 2007, however, it does not negate the fact that that the Bahamas has high rankings when it comes violence, particularly against women.
“Violence is a real concern; in fact, violence, any form of it is unacceptable in this country.” Ms. Curry said.
Over the years, Bahamians have increasingly become desensitized to violence against women as young men and women believe it is normal to display violence; Ms. Curry also said, “The Inter-American Development Bank recently showed the high level of tolerance for violence here in this country, meaning we accept it.”
She continues, “Even in our university at the University of The Bahamas (UB) another statistic showed that young men and women believe that violence is okay.
“More than 50 percent of the men interviewed for that study and their response was that it is okay for a man to ‘tap up’ his girlfriend or partner and young women, some 32 percent also said it is okay to be ‘tapped up’ by their male partner.”
The Director expressing her sentiments that nothing constitutes violence against any gender and no amount of berating should constitute it.
Zonta has also partnered with Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) for their campaign endeavour.
Advisor for PAHO/WHO, Dr. Gustavo Mery told The Journal, “The Pan American Health Organization and The World Health Organization are very concerned and actively working to end any sort of violence against women.”
Speaking to the health system of the care of victims of violence, “We have to consider that regionally one in every three women are victims of intimate partner violence or sexual violence from a non intimate partner; that is huge and we have to do something about it.”
Dr. Mery also spoke to the impact violence has on family members as a whole as children who are exposed to domestic violence have long lasting trauma effects.
“The issue of violence against women creates profound consequences with the mental and physical health of women but it also very disruptive for the whole family. It creates important consequences in children.
“The topic of violence needs to have multiple areas of focus such as the impact it has particularly on children. We have to also work to support the healing of victims of violence.” Dr. Mery stated.
The Zonta Club of Nassau is preparing this week for their ‘Say No to Violence’ Campaign which will comprise of sixteen days of activities which will highlight and educate the public further about the various forms of violence that surrounds us all.
Yesterday, the series of activities started with a church service at Zion Baptist Church among other activities which will be held this week. Nearing the sixteen days activities, on November 28th Jones Communication will host a town hall meeting. The Campaign ends December 10th.
