Introduction
As a result of universal sexism, violence against women is a major problem.
of public health worldwide as well as a serious violation of rights
fundamentals. It is often unnoticed and unobserved, partly because it
constitutes a taboo. At least one in three women, worldwide, has been beaten,
forced to have sexual intercourse or mistreated in some other way, the most
often by her husband or by another male member of the family.
I. Definition of violence
Any act of violence based on belonging to the female sex, which has or may have
as a consequence, damage or physical, sexual, or suffering
psychological for the woman, as well as threats of violence, harassment or the
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, which occurs in both the public sphere and
in the private sphere.
II. The violence against women
Violence against women can occur in all areas of
life: work, couple, family, school, street, hospital environment, transport. They take the
forms of physical, psychological, economic, administrative violence
verbal, and can be exercised occasionally or over very long periods and can
found in almost every level of social life:
Violence within the couple or family
Violence within a couple refers to violence perpetrated by a partner,
boyfriend, lover, or ex-spouse.
Violence within the family concerns violence exerted by a father,
uncle, brother, son, etc.
These acts of violence can be physical (shoving, hitting with the hand, the foot or a
object, scratch, bite, tie, pull hair, burn), psychological (devalue
behavior, appearance, qualities and abilities, not to speak
threatening to commit suicide or to kill, emotional blackmail, preventing someone from working or
to see loved ones, control communication with others), verbal (insulting,
cry), sexual (rape, touch, impose pornographic images and
non-consensual sexual practices, refusing or imposing contraception,
economic (prevent using the salary, control expenses, not pay for
alimony, making it jointly liable for debts incurred without her consent
administrative (stealing identity papers or administrative documents
essentials: driver's license, pay slips, report it to the police for
child abduction if she runs away with the couple's children, report her to the
prefecture for termination of common life in the case of a binational couple.
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Forced marriage
A marriage is forced when the family or entourage of one or the other spouse
exerts pressure or violence so that the union (civil and/or religious) takes place.
If a young girl or young woman, minor or adult, is incited, forced, manipulated to
accept a marriage, whether it takes place in France or in the country of origin of his
family or of the future spouse, it is a forced marriage. No custom, religion, or
tradition of the 'culture of origin', nor any behavior (sexual freedom, choice
A young girl's romantic feelings (or sexual orientation) do not justify forcing her to marry.
against his will.
Female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation is carried out on women of all ages (from
infant to the adult woman), and are justified by family and the surroundings in the name of
alleged customs or traditions. They concern:
Excision: cutting the clitoral foreskin, cutting part or all of it
clitoral gland, and/or cut part or all of the labia minora
Infibulation: cutting the clitoris, the labia minora, stitching the labia majora
edge to edge leaving only a small opening for the drainage of urine,
your period blood
Other practices: piercing, scraping the vaginal walls, elongating the labia and/or
labia majora
Female genital mutilation is a crime. It often has consequences.
catastrophic effects on the sexual and reproductive health and well-being of women who...
are victims.
Rape and other sexual violence
It involves any violence against women that targets their sexuality:
Rape is defined by the Penal Code (article 222-23) as any act of
sexual penetration, of whatever nature, committed on the person
of others by violence, coercion, threat or surprise. It is about the act of
to penetrate, with a part of the body or an object, an orifice (mouth, vagina,
anus) of another person's body by violence, coercion, threat or
surprise (if the woman is asleep, drugged, intoxicated, weak due to
of a handicap, terrorized by constraint or threats, paralyzed by
the uncontrollable and incomprehensible aspect of the assault). Rape is said to
conjugal when committed by a boyfriend, partner, ex-partner, ex-
boyfriend, and incestuous when committed by a family member.
Other sexual violence includes all other forms of assaults.
sexual acts without penetration, committed on minors or adults, with or
sans attouchement : « agression sexuelle », « atteinte sexuelle »,
"sexual exhibition." All are harshly punished by the law, whatever
whatever the link existing between the aggressor and the victim.
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Violence at work
Any sexist and/or sexual violence against a woman in a professional setting:
sexually harassing a colleague or subordinate ('jokes', innuendos)
sexually), displaying posters or pornographic magazines within the premises of
the establishment, ask questions about his sexuality or make confessions not
asked about his own sexuality, sexually touch, rape.
Prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation
Prostitution refers to the fact that a woman is forced to engage in...
paid sexual relations, whether out of economic necessity (precarity) or by the
violence of a trafficking network or a pimp. Trafficking for the purposes of exploitation
Sexual refers to recruitment, transportation, transfer, accommodation, and coercion.
people to paid sexual relations, whose money is given to the pimp.
Modern slavery, trafficking other than sexual exploitation
Trafficking for domestic or economic exploitation refers to recruitment,
transport, transfer, accommodation and the constraint of the person for the purpose of
reduce to slavery. Modern slavery refers to the fact that people deprive
other people of their freedom and exploit them, either for domestic work or
for economic gain.
III. The causes of violence against women
Gender-based violence, and in particular violence against women,
remains one of the strongest manifestations of unequal power relations between
women and men.
The author of the violence is the primary cause; indeed, it is very important to remain
It should be kept in mind that the victim is never responsible for the acts committed by their aggressor.
In our societies, gender-based violence cannot be explained by a single
factor. A myriad of factors contributes to it, and it is the interaction of all these factors
who is behind it.
IV. The consequences of violence against women
All violence must be fought against, but not all violence leads to
necessarily from traumatic memory.
The violence that generates the most psychotraumatic disturbances is of course the
more destructive, whether by their potential for physical harm or by their
potential for mental impairment. Most often both physical impairments and
psychics are intertwined, but the psychic impairment is always present and it is at
heart of the psychotraumatic mechanisms. This psychic injury is centered by the
traumatic memory, all the more serious as the violence has a character
incoherent and unthinkable, the victim being used to play a role in a
scenario constructed by the aggressor that does not concern her. Once the memory
traumatic installed, the way in which the traumatized victim will be rescued, surrounded,
support, recognized and understood will be essential for the prognosis. A victim
abandoned will have to struggle endlessly with psycho-traumatic symptoms and
the risks of being a victim again, while a rescued victim is well surrounded
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has every chance of seeing its traumatic memory diffuse quickly and
to be reintegrated into a normal autobiographical memory.
Conclusion
Violence thus represents a serious violation of rights and dignity.
a person as well as a serious attack on the physical and mental integrity of the victims.
They are not a fatality and must be fought against. They are made possible.
by the inequalities and discriminations that must therefore also be combated,
whether they are sexist, racist, related to poverty, age, illness,
handicaps, and to religious, political, sexual orientations. A just world and
fraternal, who would denounce violence and fight against it, would protect the victims,
and would establish real equality of rights
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