Violence

Thou seest, O my God, how the wrongs committed by such of Thy creatures as have turned their backs to Thee have come in between Him in Whom Thy Godhead is manifest and Thy servants. Send down upon them, O my Lord, what will cause them to be busied with each others' concerns. Let, then, their violence be confined to their own selves, that the land and they that dwell therein may find peace.

O ye lovers of God! In this, the cycle of Almighty God, violence and force, constraint and oppression, are one and all condemned. It is, however, mandatory that the use of opium be prevented by any means whatsoever, that perchance the human race may be delivered from this most powerful of plagues. And otherwise, woe and misery to whoso falleth short of his duty to his Lord.

Behaviours learned in the home are replicated in the wider society.

Moreover, contrary to conventional wisdom, a gain in status for women often brings an increase, not a decrease, in reported cases of violence as men feel threatened by a loss of power.

The first step in ending family violence," said Dr. Nahid Toubia, of the Population Council, "is recognizing that certain practices, such as genital mutilation and widow burning, can be sources of cultural pride and serve to maintain the existing social order." In other cases, she said, people consider wife battering, excessive punishment of children and infanticide of baby girls as "an unpleasant but unavoidable reality.

The inestimable cost of lost productivity by damaged individuals unable to function fully, if at all. of lost psychic identities, and even loss of lives must also be considered. Think of the millions of women who live with violence and the fear of violence. They lose their sense of identity which has been eroded to the point where they accept the contaminated version of reality dictated by their abusers.

Women and children must be helped to avoid collusion with men in perpetuating violence by remaining silent, excusing violence, blaming themselves, and accepting cultural rationales.

Women will not be safe until a new social conscience takes hold, one which will make the mere expression of condescending attitudes towards women, let alone any form of physical violence, a cause for deep shame.