From a week ago a campaign against domestic violence in Saudi Arabia made headlines worldwide. For the first time a campaign launched in the conservative kingdom tackling this social taboo under the name “No More Abuse”. The campaign is launched and sponsored by King Khaled Foundation.
The tagline of the extreme powerful ad in this campaign in English says “Something can not be hidden”
I think the incident of Lama Al Ghamadi could be one of the triggers in this campaign.
I hope to see a similar campaign in Egypt dealing with this taboo. I once saw a TV ads campaign about domestic violence in ONTV from two years ago and that’s it. It was a campaign sponsored by the government then showing the cycle of violence in the society.
Unfortunately this campaign was stopped and nobody remembers it except very few.
Domestic violence is from the unholy taboos in Egypt that nobody dares to come near for real. Myth says that it has to do with education and class but it is a myth.
Domestic violence has nothing to do with education or class , I have witnessed many cases of domestic violence where women are beaten by their very well educated and wealthy husbands. It also has nothing to do with religion.
Many Muslim and Christian women suffer unbearable violence and yet they have to stick with their husbands till death does apart because of family prestige and the myth that the children need a father regardless of the fact that that father is abusive and the kids will not be raised normally. Christian Orthodox ladies got the divorce dilemma too and in the end we got Muslim and Christian ladies praying God that either their abusive husbands die or turn good miraculously and it will be the last time they physically abuse them.
While writing this I remember my grandma’s late sister who asked for divorce in 1949 from her filthy rich Upper Egyptian husband when she was 18 years old only because he started to abuse her physically. That ex-husband was a spoiled rich young man turned to be an alcoholic.
My late grandma told me that what her sister had done then was considered to be somehow revolutionary act for real , still she got her total family support. Young ladies in their time would not dare to do for fear on their family prestige and that “divorced” reputation. That’s besides the fact that most of the city girls and ladies did not work.
Of course that came with a a price during then. My late grand aunt had to lose her only son’s custody because of the bad family laws and corrupted judges in the family court then. The 1970s and 1980s family and personal affairs laws are really a bless.
Needless to say violence in working classes even get worse because women fear of losing their source of income in case of being unemployed especially when they are uneducated.
I remember that from couple of years ago our former house keeper came late and mom knew from her that her husband had beaten her badly the other night, it was not the first. My mom asked her why she would stay with him when he constantly treated her like that especially she was working and earned her living plus he was her second husband and not the father of her children. She was divorced from first husband because he was violent by the way.
The lady told mom that she loved him so much plus “ a man’s shadow is better than nothing !!”
My mom did not know what to say to her , she gave her painkillers and cream as well the rest of the week off.
Another type of domestic violence Egyptians do not dare to speak is the violence against Children. There is clear line between discipline and domestic violence that many Egyptian families do not see unfortunately.
I hate to say but up till now we do not have the guts in Egypt as civil society , as feminists and as activists to discuss this problem affecting millions of women and children as we should.
Domestic violence is really a big taboo but one day we will have to deal with it , we can not escape it for too long.
I will not be exaggerating that part of the violence we see now in the Egyptian street is partially rooted in the domestic violence. Once a child raised up that violence is the only way for dialogue in his home , he or she will grow up to accept and adopt this type of dialogue forever.
Thanks to Ahmed Awadalla , I found this clip about domestic violence in Egypt with English subtitles. It is short by the way.
 |
| Something can not be hidden indeed |
I think the incident of Lama Al Ghamadi could be one of the triggers in this campaign.
I hope to see a similar campaign in Egypt dealing with this taboo. I once saw a TV ads campaign about domestic violence in ONTV from two years ago and that’s it. It was a campaign sponsored by the government then showing the cycle of violence in the society.
Unfortunately this campaign was stopped and nobody remembers it except very few.
Domestic violence is from the unholy taboos in Egypt that nobody dares to come near for real. Myth says that it has to do with education and class but it is a myth.
Domestic violence has nothing to do with education or class , I have witnessed many cases of domestic violence where women are beaten by their very well educated and wealthy husbands. It also has nothing to do with religion.
Many Muslim and Christian women suffer unbearable violence and yet they have to stick with their husbands till death does apart because of family prestige and the myth that the children need a father regardless of the fact that that father is abusive and the kids will not be raised normally. Christian Orthodox ladies got the divorce dilemma too and in the end we got Muslim and Christian ladies praying God that either their abusive husbands die or turn good miraculously and it will be the last time they physically abuse them.
While writing this I remember my grandma’s late sister who asked for divorce in 1949 from her filthy rich Upper Egyptian husband when she was 18 years old only because he started to abuse her physically. That ex-husband was a spoiled rich young man turned to be an alcoholic.
My late grandma told me that what her sister had done then was considered to be somehow revolutionary act for real , still she got her total family support. Young ladies in their time would not dare to do for fear on their family prestige and that “divorced” reputation. That’s besides the fact that most of the city girls and ladies did not work.
Of course that came with a a price during then. My late grand aunt had to lose her only son’s custody because of the bad family laws and corrupted judges in the family court then. The 1970s and 1980s family and personal affairs laws are really a bless.
Needless to say violence in working classes even get worse because women fear of losing their source of income in case of being unemployed especially when they are uneducated.
I remember that from couple of years ago our former house keeper came late and mom knew from her that her husband had beaten her badly the other night, it was not the first. My mom asked her why she would stay with him when he constantly treated her like that especially she was working and earned her living plus he was her second husband and not the father of her children. She was divorced from first husband because he was violent by the way.
The lady told mom that she loved him so much plus “ a man’s shadow is better than nothing !!”
My mom did not know what to say to her , she gave her painkillers and cream as well the rest of the week off.
Another type of domestic violence Egyptians do not dare to speak is the violence against Children. There is clear line between discipline and domestic violence that many Egyptian families do not see unfortunately.
I hate to say but up till now we do not have the guts in Egypt as civil society , as feminists and as activists to discuss this problem affecting millions of women and children as we should.
Domestic violence is really a big taboo but one day we will have to deal with it , we can not escape it for too long.
I will not be exaggerating that part of the violence we see now in the Egyptian street is partially rooted in the domestic violence. Once a child raised up that violence is the only way for dialogue in his home , he or she will grow up to accept and adopt this type of dialogue forever.
Thanks to Ahmed Awadalla , I found this clip about domestic violence in Egypt with English subtitles. It is short by the way.
0 comments:
Post a Comment