The War Inside the Home

 Violence Against Women is a long-standing issue that affects women from all different walks of life. There is for the, most part, a universal consensus that this is wrong and that women who experience gender-targeted violence are suffering. And yet, when faced with an opportunity to help women escape violence, women are turned away.

This past June America saw first-hand how little the government cares for the safety of refugee women. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed and immigration appeals court ruling that allowed for women to seek asylum in the U.S due to credible fears of domestic abuse. This decision now limits all women who are experiencing domestic violence from seeking shelter in our country. 

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Sessions considers violence against women done by their partners to be an issue of, “private violence”. When you make the abuse women have to suffer a “private” affair then it is easier to turn a blind eye to it.  Private violence is something that the individual should handle or stop themselves. Private violence is not a national issue or a global concern. Sessions believes that it is not our country's responsibility to, “provide redress for all misfortune”. Using the word “misfortune” to describe the abuse that women experience at the hands of a partner is a gross invalidation of their suffering.  The abuse these women are experiencing at the hands of their partners can often be life-threatening if it goes on for too long.

It is should be noted that when Sessions talks about those seeking asylum he is referring to those individuals as “aliens” or “immigrants”. This changing of wording is used to help support the claim that this violence is a private matter. “Aliens” or “immigrants” are typically individuals who choose to leave their countries because they want to. Refugees, on the other hand, are described as individuals who leave their countries because they are no longer safe to live in. By not referring to the women who are trying to seek shelter in this country as refugees. Sessions delegitimize the danger these women’s lives are in due to domestic violence. He is claiming that violence of a partner, in a country that will not take action to support, is not a good enough reason to feel the need to seek safety elsewhere.

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It is clear that the opinion regarding women from other countries suffering violence from partners is none of the U.S concern. People that support Sessions on this decision are ignorant to the fact that often times the violence women are experiencing in their homes is an effect of the violence they are experiencing in their countries. Therefore, making domestic abuse a less privatized or isolated situation and more of an effect of war.

Violence against women during wartime takes on many forms such as rape, genital mutilation, and murder. Often soldiers from opposing sides are the ones that take part in these violent actions. There is an understanding that the violence done by the opposing side during war is the greatest and the most prevalent. Though women do experience a great about of gendered violence that is directly caused from the other side, it is not the only violence they are getting exposed to because of the war.

Domestic violence is heightened during times of conflict and often become lingering effects of war. One reason for this is the poverty and stress that goes along with wars, causes more martial disputes that can turn violent (Murray 153). Another reason is that war creates an environment that is adjusted to everyday violence and at a certain point accepts it. A society that has seen extreme violence as a way to end conflict within the nation becomes much more accepting of using violence as a way to end conflict within the home (153).

War disrupts and changes peoples through long-lasting trauma and stress. The violence does not end when the soldiers leave but continue when they come home.  Women are experiencing a significant amount of violence; it shouldn’t matter who is causing it. By deciding that domestic abuse is not a cause to give women asylum the U.S ignoring a whole other effect of war. Domestic abuse may not be the most public or salient issue within the news but it still something that is putting women’s lives in danger.

Nicolas Economou

This is an issue affecting women who still reside in their native countries and for the refugee women who have left their countries. An Arab community center in Toronto has noted that a large population of Syrian women are coming forward about domestic abuse going on in their life. One reason that the center has found that women stay silent for so long is that they were in “survival mode”. They are focused on getting out of the violence and conflict in their home countries. Unfortunately, sometimes they leave one violent situation to enter into another in their own home.

War breeds an environment that becomes adjusted and accepting of violence. Women are the ones that getting the worse effects of this. Instead of trying to offer help, our country is turning a blind eye to a serious issue. It is, quite frankly disgusting to see how little we value women’s lives and safety. As a country, we have become tolerant of witnessing the violence of war and letting women take the worse of it. If women cannot be safe in their own countries, then they deserve to be able to feel safe in their homes at the very least.

Sources 

Murray, Anne. From Outrage to Courage. Maine, Common Courage Press, 2008. 

Benner, Katie, and Caitlin Dickerson. “Sessions Says Domestic and Gang Violence Are Not Grounds for Asylum.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/sessions-domestic-violence-asylum.html.

Lee-Shanok, Philip. “Syrian Refugee Coming Forward with Domestic Violence Allegations | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 21 May 2016, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/syrian-refugee-violence-1.3592679.