Femicide, the term was first used in England to describe “killing of a woman”. Later on, Carol Orlock, an American author, initiated the use of the term in her anthology on femicide. Diana E.H. Russell, a feminist writer, first used the term in public when giving a speech on first International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women, in Brussels in 1976. Feminists today pursue femicide as a form of sexual violence or any violence against women.
World has seen injustices and genocides against women since decades. Every year women all over the world have to pay for being “women”, sacrifices made by the females because of their gender is pervasive since the beginning of time.
According to a recent survey by UN Women Organization, globally, 736 million women have been victims of partner violence, non-partner violence, or both at least once in their life, the figure excludes cases of sexual harassment. (Source: https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures)
Female Feticide in India
Females in India are even denied the right to be born. More than one million females have died inside their mother’s womb. In 1994 the Indian government passed PCPNDT Act to ban and punish prenatal sex screening and female feticide. But even after the ban, many families have illegally aborted the female fetuses. One of the main reason for this is females in India are seen as a burden to their family, they have to start saving for the dowry since her birth.
According to the data from 2011, states like Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra have worse sex ratio than Chhattisgarh and north-eastern states. According to the PRI (Population Research Institute), 15.8 million girls went missing in India due to prenatal sex selection. Since 2016, India has witnessed one of the highest female infanticides in the world. (Source: https://www.dw.com/en/female-feticide-in-india-a-paradox-of-development/a-49852825)
If we go back to the history of femicide, we will see different cultures have practiced different forms of femicide throughout history.
Witch-Hunt
Let’s go back to the time in continental England during sixteenth century when witch-hunt, where women were subjected to imprisonment or life penalty for allegedly performing “witchcraft”, of whom majority were completely innocent, was widely prevalent.
One of the reasons was during the period due to less availability of land, the average age of marriage for women had rise to 27. Many women from poor or middle class family couldn’t afford the dowry so they remained unmarried. The society claimed these women as menacing or treacherous because they were not under any men. (Source: Femicide, the Politics of Woman Killing by Jill Radford and Diana Russell)
Violence against Women of Color
Women have always been the victims of sexism but it was harder for the women of color to fight femicide. When racism and sexism colluded, it created havoc for women of color. There have been stereotypes for centuries that black women are “vessels for sexual desire” which resulted and were used to justify rapes, slavery during Western Colonization.
Even today it is estimated that for every 15 black women who are raped, only one reports her assault. Another study by Violence Policy Center finds that black women were two and a half times more likely to get murdered than their white women counterparts.(Source: https://now.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Black-Women-and-Sexual-Violence-6.pdf) Black women and girls are still simultaneously fighting against ceaseless war of sexism and racism.
Sati
Burning of women along with their husband may seem absurd today but it was regarded as a custom by the Hindus in India. Sati was a practice where a Hindu woman immolated herself by burning herself along with her deceased husband. Many women began opposing the idea and many even fought against the system but they were coerced to do so.
Study shows that first incidents of Sati was recorded in 464 CE in Nepal which spread to Madhya Pradesh and later on to Rajasthan where most cases of Sati was recorded during the century.(Source: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/the-dark-history-behind-sati-a-banned-funeral-custom-in-india/) The practice of Sati was although banned by the then Governor-General Lord William Bentinck on December 4th, 1829.
Honor Killing
According to a reliable study a total of 87,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017, half of the women i.e. 58% were killed by their partners or family members. (https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/60a947ee-afdf-4ac4-bc30-a04bfcc43a24 ) It was recorded that the regions with the highest number of females killed by partners or family members in 2017 were Asia and Africa.
In India, honor killings have been mainly reported in the northern regions which include states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
How family and society creates a future assailant?
We always complain about men ruling the outside world, women facing sexism at their work place or men treating women differently because of her gender. If we look at the larger aspect, women being killed by men because she didn’t agree to be his girlfriend, boys aged 15 throwing acids at girls because their egos were hurt.
If we take moment and think where do these boys or men come from? Who created them? They weren’t born with this mindset, so who told them that they are superior to females and have the right to kill them if they disobey them? Everything begins at home.
A girl and a boy are raised differently in the same household. Girls are taught to cook, clean, dress “decently”, etc. On the other hand boys have dominance over their sisters since they are born even when he is younger than his sister. The boys will have the mindset that they are superior to females and have every right to assault them if they disobey them.
Parents should stop treating their children differently, should raise their son better, stop making sexist comments or jokes, divide the household chores between son and daughter and give their daughter equal freedom as their son.
How we as a society can help curb Femicide?
Femicide is an urgent issue for whoever is against violence against women. Femicide represents the most extreme form of violence against women on basis of their gender. Women and girls of all age are no where safe in this world.
A survey was done by a Canadian novelist where she asked her male friend why men feel threatened by women and he simply replied “They are afraid women will laugh at them.” She then asked her female friends why they felt threatened by men and the answer was alarmingly distress but true. They replied “We’re afraid of being killed.”
Now we know how old this tradition is, if only we had raised this issue in the past, had protected our women better against all these atrocious acts, maybe the situation would have been better for them today. Nevertheless, we can still act upon these issues by speaking out, standing up against all the injustice done against women in our society or by donating to NGOs who works for the education and welfare of women. Down are the names of few NGOs you can contribute at to help women of India fight for their rights:
Guria IndiaThe organization focuses on helping the victim to fight their case from filing an FIR to collecting the evidence. (http://www.guriaindia.org/)
ActionAid IndiaActionAid helps the domestic and sexual violence victims, not only girls/women but also minor boys. (https://www.giveindia.org/nonprofit/actionaid-association)
Shikshan Ane Samaj Kalyan KendraThe organization was created to help women through activities like health, education, etc. (https://sskkamreli.org/)
PreranaIt has been working towards the rescue and protection of human trafficking victims. (https://fundraisers.giveindia.org/nonprofits/prerana-bangalore)
Sakhya Women’s Guidance CellThe organization aims at promoting gender equality by spreading awareness. It offers the victims counseling, shelter and legal aid. (http://sakhyawgc.org/)
