Sexual violence against women: its forms and the ways of confronting it

Prepared by the psychological counsellor Randa Baraka
Sexual violence against women is a problem widespread throughout the world, and despite its seriousness there is only a little research dealing with this problem.
Because of the particular nature of sexual violence, speaking about this problem is considered one of the difficult subjects.
Here is research carried out in the region of South Africa that stated that approximately one woman in every four is subjected to sexual violence from her husband, and that there are more than a third of adolescent girls who suffer from being subjected to sexual violence under coercion.
The serious thing here is the physical and psychological effect resulting from sexual violence on the woman's health. In addition to the physical injuries the woman is subjected to because of this violence, there are other dangers, namely the increased rate of sexual and reproductive problems and their immediate consequences or those that appear in the long term, where their psychological effect is no less serious than their physical effect, whose impact may extend a long way.
Among the consequences resulting from sexual violence are death by suicide, HIV infection, or being killed in defence of honour. Sexual violence can affect the make-up of society as a whole, where the victims suffer from the stigma of shame and from society's rejection of them and of their families.
The assailant feels satisfaction and pleasure while carrying out the sexual act by force, in order to express his desire to show his power and his control over the victim. Many husbands who force their wives to have sex believe that this is a legitimate act because it takes place within the framework of marriage.
Rape is also used as a weapon in wars and as a kind of attack on the enemy, and as an insult directed at fighting men or women.
Governments also use it as a punishment for violating society's laws, and both women and men are subjected to rape while they are in juvenile centres or prisons.
The concept of sexual violence
Sexual violence is the attempt to carry out the sexual act in a coercive manner, illegitimate religiously or humanly, on the victim, regardless of the relationship between them or the place in which it happens.
This kind of violence includes psychological intimidation, blackmail or any other kinds of intimidation such as the threat of physical harm, of dismissal from work or of not obtaining work. It also happens when the assailant is under the influence of alcohol, drugs or mental illness.
The forms of sexual violence against women
- Being raped by strangers.
- A husband's rape of his wife.
- Rape at the hands of enemies during wars.
- Sexual harassment based on obtaining sex in return for providing a service to the victim.
- The sexual assault of psychiatric patients or people with disabilities.
- The sexual assault of children.
- Forced marriage and child marriage
- The denial of means of contraception.
- Forced abortion.
- Acts of violence against the genitals, including mutilation and forced virginity testing.
- Forcing into prostitution for exploitative ends.
The extent to which the limits of the problem are reached
The information on this problem is obtained from the police, medical clinics, non-governmental organisations and scientific research. In general the subject of sexual violence is a thorny subject and the information about it is often incomplete, because many victims do not report what happened to them out of fear of disgrace and reproach from society and of being blamed for a lack of care or of good upbringing.
The factors that make a woman exposed to rape
- Society's suffering from poverty, which makes marriage a difficult thing.
- Men's use of drugs or alcohol.
- Unemployment, which leaves men with excessive free time.
- Men's ignorance of how to deal humanely with a wife.
- A woman wearing provocative clothes that show her charms.
What must be done to fight violence or the sexual assault of women
- Providing psychological support for women and men.
- Setting up programmes of psychological treatment for assailants.
- Setting up advanced means of protecting women
- Providing the victim with health treatment services and legal protection.
- Training women in medical care
- Making treatments available for HIV infection
- Providing specialised centres for the care of victims.
- Setting up campaigns to fight assault
- Providing religious and cultural awareness programmes in schools
- Judicial reform that protects women