Gender Violence Research Articles

‘Solidarity Across Borders’: online gender activism and the construction of a Middle East and North African regional public space

ABSTRACT Academic discourse frequently speaks of a gender violence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), suggesting a distinctive gender violence that is tied to a geographic location. Within the framework of a digital ethnography, this research examines whether gender activists operating in digital spaces themselves conceptualise and mobilise around their struggle using a regional lens, combining observations, a multimodal analyses of social media content, and interviews with 20 digital activists to do so. Challenging orientalist narratives, I centre the ontological agency of these (predominantly) young, (predominantly) women digital activists from and within the region in defining, contesting, and (re)producing the MENA within their resistance to gender violence. This timely intervention comes after a string of feminicides in June/July 2022 led to calls for a regional Women’s General Strike going viral across social media platforms. Following the strike’s slogan, تضامن عابر للحدود (Solidarity Across Borders), this research explores the potentialities and limitations of regional solidarities as a vehicle for building feminist public spaces. Contributing to debates within transnational feminist research regarding activism’s multiple spatialities, I examine how strike participants, through their framings of regional gender-based violence and the networks and identities built around said framings, navigate sameness and difference in dynamic and sometimes divisive ways. Within the strike context, we see a fragile regional public being formed that simultaneously challenges and reproduces narratives of gender violence in the MENA in ways that demonstrate both the salience of regionality and the importance of including activist voices in our regional constructions.

COVID-19 violence and the re-making of urban space through solidarity networks among transgender women in Lima, Peru

ABSTRACT Extreme instances of COVID-19 policy-related violence against transgender (trans) communities in Latin America highlight the imperative to better understand how gender, power, and rights are entwined within public spaces. Peru is a useful vantage point to explore the intersections between gendered power asymmetries, violence, and access to safe public spaces, given the brief COVID-19 public health policy that restricted the mobility of its citizens based on binary understandings of sex and associated cisheteronormativity. These policies restricted access to public spaces and essential services to women on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and to men on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and were enforced based on sex assigned at birth reported via identity documents. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with Peruvian trans women, this paper examines the impacts of these COVID-19 policies on trans communities and documents grassroots activism efforts to navigate public space that ultimately demand and assert human rights both during and post-COVID-19. Findings illustrate that while short-lived, the sex-based policies and associated policing in urban public space significantly impacted the well-being of Peruvian trans women. Participants illustrated numerous community-enacted strategies to navigate COVID-19 inequities, including information sharing, crowd-sourcing funds to secure food, pay rent and/or secure housing, and grocery shopping provided by trans people for trans people. Further, community mutual aid efforts have continued and evolved years into the pandemic. Jointly, findings advance understandings of the critical role of public spaces as arenas of political struggles that reveal and challenge a wider spectrum of intersecting oppressions and power structures that trans women continually navigate and resist.

Gender violence, emotion, and the state symposium commentary

AbstractFeminist anthropologists have long emphasized the cultural, social, economic, and political contexts of gender violence rather than only focusing on interpersonal relationships between intimate partners or within the family. This commentary situates the five articles in the Gender Violence, Emotion, and the State Symposium within that context while noting their “evocative ethnographic” approach as a vital contribution to feminist anthropological thought, paying particular attention to power and its exercise within institutions and various forms of structural violence.

Mediation and the feasibility of aplication in contraventional processes of violence against women and members of the family nucleus in Ecuador

The Ecuadorian State maintains a legal system with a guarantees tint, which is why it protects the constitutional rights of the legal subjects that inhabit it. However, the Ecuadorian culture itself has been responsible for establishing inequalities, putting women in a situation of vulnerability, causing gender violence that, currently in Ecuador, has increased drastically. Through this research, we seek to analyze the way in which mediation as an alternative method of conflict resolution can help women who are victims of violence without having to exhaust judicial instances, which on many occasions becomes ineffective due to the very nature of these. criminal infractions, as well as due to the procedural congestion that exists within the Judicial Units Against Violence against Women and Members of the Family Nucleus. Through a qualitative research approach, which will allow observing the object of study to determine if it is appropriate and above all the feasibility of mediation as a tool for contravention procedures of violence against women or members of the family nucleus, in order to counteract this conflict quickly and effectively.

Beyond the Initial Assault: Characterizing Revictimization in Intimate Partner Violence and Its Implications for Women's Health.

Recent research has emphasized the importance of addressing specific victim-related factors to reduce victims' vulnerability and prevent future revictimization experiences. This study aimed to analyze the vulnerability profiles of women who were victims of intimate partner violence, including those who had experienced a single incident of violence and those who had endured revictimization. Participants were 338 women with active judicial protection measures registered in the system of support for victims of gender violence (VioGén) in Madrid, Spain. The analysis considered sociodemographic characteristics, victimization history, perceived triggers of violence, women's responses and feelings, as well as clinical outcomes linked to revictimization history. The study revealed that many victims faced socioeconomic vulnerability. Furthermore, the findings underscored the intricate link between the likelihood of enduring chronic violence and women's awareness of early indicators of violence risk, their initial responses to aggression, communication skills, and recurrent behaviors in the context of an established violent dynamic. This study offers valuable insights for law enforcement to identify the risk of revictimization. Furthermore, findings raise awareness about the particularly vulnerable situation of some women to repeated victimization experiences and provide relevant information for clinical intervention.

The Implementation of Tourism Axiological Dimension for Women Survivors

This study aims to analyse the implementation of axiological dimensions of tourism development at Kabupaten Manggarai Barat, especially to women addressed as a victim of gender violence. This research uses a qualitative research method which the key informant comes from representative’s community itself. As a tools of data collection, this study uses field observations, forum group discussion, and literature studies. SWOT Matrix Analysis also uses as data analysing technique. The result of the study showed that there are numbers of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential threats that interfere the whole implementation of tourism development process and its inclusivity. Therefore, it is recommended that stakeholders need to make a better and strong coordination, then should be followed by common political will, in order to ensure that any strategic-follow-up plans can be implemented properly and efficiently.

Using Social Media to Recruit Seldom-Heard Groups: Reaching Women and Girls with Experience of Violence in Iran

Social media recruitment and online surveys are valuable tools in social science research, but their effectiveness in reaching seldom-heard victims of gender violence in low-middle income (LMI) countries is under-explored. This empirical study aims to: (1) describe violence and abuse experiences and (2) assess the benefits and limitations of using social media to document violence against women and girls (VAWGs) in a LMI country to render visible the experiences of potentially isolated victims. A total of 453 Iranian women (aged 14–59, mean = 28.8, SD = 8.04) responded to an Instagram invitation for a study on women’s health and violence exposure from February 2020 to January 2022. The questionnaire covered general gendered abuse, domestic violence (DV), and forced unemployment. The analysis was performed using Stata 17. Nearly all participants reported abuse, including sexual (85.0%), psychological (83.4%), and technology-facilitated (57.4%) abuse, with 77.4% experiencing multiple forms. The street (62%) and home (52.8%) were common abuse locations. The perpetrators included known individuals (75.9%) and strangers (80.8%), with 56.7% reporting abuse by both. DV was reported by 72.6%, mainly involving psychological (73.1%), physical (53.4%), and/or sexual (17.2%) violence, with fathers (47.8%), husbands (42.7%), and brothers (40.2%) as frequent perpetrators. A quarter reported forced unemployment. Those experiencing DV and/or forced unemployment showed higher depression levels, suicidal ideation, and lower marital satisfaction. The study suggests using social media recruitment for VAWG research but cautions against overgeneralising from these data.

Violence on social networks related to the body image of young women and its repercussions on health.

Social networking sites perpetuate gender stereotypes, inequalities, and gender violence, generating adverse health effects. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between Instagram, alcohol consumption and effects on health, through interviews and discussion groups involving adolescents (high school or university students and workers), during the period from the third to the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 118 individuals participated in the study. Three coding clusters were identified: (1) Inequality in the representation of men and women on SNSs; (2) Violence towards women's bodies and sexual violence on SNSs; and (3) Health problems derived from violence against women's body image on SNSs. The main focus of our analysis was the exhibition of the female body, in which eroticization of the body prevails and gender roles are perpetuated. Violence is generated towards women in the form of misogynistic attacks for daring to challenge conventional stereotypes. Many interviewees coincide that the main health effects include low self-esteem, anxiety and eating disorders. The institutional response to the abuses and violence committed on SNSs against women is weak, and public policies are needed to protect women in these environments where they are especially vulnerable.

Red Shoes Australia: when public art meets forensic science and becomes a movement for change

ABSTRACT Public art has long been recognized as a powerful medium for social and cultural expression, taking various forms and sizes across different settings. Generally designed for installation in public places, public art aims to engage the public by fostering participation, interaction, and critical thinking. One notable example is ‘Red Shoes Australia’, an adaptation of ‘Los Zapatos Rojos’ by Mexican artist Elina Chauvet. This installation features hundreds of pairs of red shoes in an iconic Australian public space, serving as a poignant memorial to the victims of domestic, gender, and family violence. First presented in 2022 as part of the Western Australian ‘16 Days in WA: Stop Violence Against Women’ campaign, the event was a collaboration with the Western Australia Museum and continued as an impactful initiative in subsequent years. Beyond its role as an art exhibition, the event seeks to emphasize the impact of forensic research and practice in combating gender-based violence and empowering victims with a scientific voice against their perpetrators. The confluence of art, and forensics, leveraging ‘The Red Shoes’, underscores that positive change in systems and society is driven by knowledge, education, strategic research, and the development of educational programmes and community services.

Evidence-Based Reconstruction of Memories of a Disdainful Hookup: Identifying Risk Factors and Preventing Further Victimization.

Autobiographical memories of close relationships have been shown to have strong influence in health and life. Yet, there is no research published about longitudinal memory reconstruction of violent sporadic relationships while reading and discussing scientific evidence on gender violence victimization. This article presents a novel case of the reconstruction throughout time of the memory of a disdainful hookup experienced by a young woman. The victim's diary and an interview were the sources of data collection. The analytical categories were developed in dialogue with the participant. The results indicate that, as the subject learned scientific evidence on gender violence in sporadic relationships, she progressively recalled details of the episode that she had self-censored before, became aware of the very violent nature of the hookup, rejected the relationship, and freed her desire for satisfactory romantic relationships.

Introduction to the gender violence, emotion, and the state symposium

Introduction to the gender violence, emotion, and the state symposium

Navigating the emotional terrain of prison reentry: State‐sanctioned gendered violence

AbstractThe emotional experiences of incarceration are directly tied to state‐sanctioned gendered violence. Most incarcerated women have a history of trauma, stemming directly from broader socio‐political and economic forces, which is further rendered throughout the incarceration and reentry process. The carceral system in the United States disrupts family and social support systems, fails to provide accessible and adequate mental health and substance use services, and denies stabilization resources such as housing, employment, and citizenry for women once released from prison, yet their emotional experiences are largely absent in analyses of this gendered violence. Drawing from a larger intimate ethnography project with a woman, LaTasha, recently released from a 25‐year to life prison sentence, this article examines how women negotiate and express emotions within the context of prison reentry contributing to feminist anthropological scholarship on state‐sanctioned gender violence. Through an in‐depth analysis of the challenges LaTasha faces in rebuilding relationships with family, navigating a system in which she has been outcasted, and asserting herself after being systematically disempowered, we gain insight into the ways in which carceral systems have prevented emotional complexity resulting in a form of incipient and largely invisible violence.

Gender Violence During the Three Ages of Life and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Review.

Children, women, and older people suffer different types of violence, which appears to have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic and the relative lockdown. The aim of this study is to analyze the literature about gender violence and abuse in the different ages of life and during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data were obtained from an electronic literature search using various online sources such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct and Web of Science. The terms "child abuse" were the most frequently used, followed in frequency by "gender violence," "femicide," and, lastly, "elderly abuse." The first studies considered gender-based violence as a purely physical problem, then, progressively, the analysis focused on the psychological point of view of the issue. There was a greater number of studies in 2020 about violence in comparison with previous years. The social and scientific attention to gender-based violence appeared to be very poor, especially in the case of older people abuse. It is necessary to increase general attention to the topic to correctly identify each form of abuse and to be able to take care of the subjects most at risk.

From distress to anger to shame: Gender violence, empowerment, and emotional states in Ecuador

AbstractChanging discourses and laws related to women's rights and intimate partner violence (IPV) in rural Ecuador have profoundly reshaped how local women experience and respond to violence. Women once understood violence as one strand of social suffering embedded in everyday rural life, and they resisted and managed this violence through various collective idioms of distress. Over the last two decades, however, state and non‐governmental organization (NGO) campaigns have isolated gender violence as a discrete phenomenon, emphasizing the “wrongness” of IPV, the validity of righteous anger, and the importance of a legal response to secure the separation of “liberated” women. In this article, I draw on 20 years of fieldwork to discuss how emotional responses to gender violence have shifted in tandem with changing state and transnational discourses and policies in the coastal region of Las Colinas. A deep disjuncture between neoliberal discourses of feminist empowerment and the material reality of rural women's life options leaves many women experiencing new forms of shame when they are unable to turn anger into liberation and escape gender violence in their families and communities. Focusing on the emotional states that states create reveals how political‐economic and discursive shifts are mediated through emotions and collective idioms.

Authoritarian populist politics, politico‐religious extremism, and violence against women in post‐war Sri Lanka

AbstractDespite the implementation of progressive national policies and the adherence to numerous international conventions aimed at eradicating gender‐based violence and violence against women, incidents of violence against women in post‐war Sri Lanka are on the rise. This research delves into the intersection of post‐war populist politics supported by religious extremists and the resulting violence perpetrated against women, as well as its repercussions on women's well‐being. We are interested in locating the specific mechanisms through which religious extremism, authoritarian populism, and violence against women are connected. Our findings indicate that post‐war populist politics, backed by Buddhist religious extremists and the post‐war Sinhalese‐Buddhist hegemonic state's re‐building project, have generated dialectical relationships with Sri Lanka's minorities—Tamils and Muslims. These relationships are partially enacted through different forms of gender violence. This has consequences for all women. As successive confrontations deepen, the deterioration of these relationships exacerbates the likelihood of violence and reinforces a culture of impunity.

The Characteristics versus the “Myths” of Romantic Love

The scientific literature has already demonstrated the benefits of romantic love as a key protective factor in the prevention of violence. Some recent publications affirm that romantic love is a powerful cause of gender violence following two steps. First, they attribute a list of causes of violence to romantic love calling them “the myths of romantic love”, including lack of freedom and the normalization of coercion. Nonetheless, research has not explored in depth yet whether what they call “romantic love myths” are consubstantial characteristics of romantic love or not. To that end, this study conducts a historical literature review of scientific articles, books, literary and musical works from diverse cultures and periods. Findings show those myths are not characteristics of romantic love; on the contrary, the literature reviewed shows six main characteristics of romantic love that demonstrate it is the opposite of those myths, as it has freed women from feudal and other subjugations throughout history.

The Iltani Archive and the Messiness of Spousal Violence

The Old Babylonian archive of Iltani, a royal woman living in Qaṭṭara (Tell Al-Rimah), offers a glimpse into the messiness that often surrounds gendered violence. The archive attests to two distinct cases of spousal violence against women – namely, Iltani and her acquaintance Belessunu. When only her case is considered, Iltani may appear uncomplicated, a righteous victim. However, this neat and flat narrative is greatly complicated by her demonstrated resistance to helping Belessunu leave her abusive husband, despite Iltani’s personal history and unique ability to intervene. Letters from Belessunu and a mutual friend of the two, Azzu, offer a rare opportunity to read conversations between ancient West Asian women in response to gendered violence, and these relationships too are messy. The correspondence demonstrates that spousal violence could alternatively strengthen or strain female friendships, and offers the possibility of studying spousal violence in a way that decenters the violent (male) spouse. Despite the remarkable attestation of a women’s support network in the Old Babylonian period, it appears that the network failed to achieve its aims, whereas Yarim-Lim, a man who identifies as Belessunu’s ‘brother,’ succeeded in meeting their initial goal.

Identifying and interpreting gendered violence: Visual literacy in an audience reception study of Issa López' Casi Divas

AbstractWe present an audience reception study of participant reactions to gender‐based violence in Issa López' 2008 film, Casi Divas, chosen for its nuanced depiction of women grappling with several violences. Over three focus groups with 15 adult participants, we used Galtung's conflict theory to explore what participants identified as violence, and how victims should respond to violence in various forms. We find that participants have a narrow definition of violence, seeing it as an individualized act and therefore neglecting to consider its cultural or structural foundations. The participants' responses to violence largely reflected neoliberal values of personal empowerment and choice, resilience, and “leaning in.” We recommend critical visual literacy as a tool in the educational context to identify and address violence, to fight inequity, and to establish emancipatory discourses.

Gendered Anti-Blackness: Policing Black Women and the Making of the Modern City

The Streets Belong to Us makes a significant contribution to multiple fields, most principally the history of race, gender, sexuality, incarceration, and state violence in the United States. It is a definitive history of the changing nature of police power, and the ways that it defined, defended, and enforced the logics that undergirded racial segregation. Illuminating the significant degree to which urban policymaking and planning depended on state violence, Anne Fischer compels us to better appreciate the relation between the making and the remaking of the modern city and the consolidation of police power. To do so, we must see that this connection was made possible through the surveillance, harassment, and sexual criminalization of Black women. Women’s bodies, particularly Black women’s bodies, acted as the constitutive material that made up the very fabric of state power and racial segregation. Along with presenting an analysis of the racial and gendered dimensions of morals law enforcement, The Streets Belong to Us moves Black women out of the shadows of urban history by grounding the analysis within the intellectual production by Black feminist organizers and scholars. Their concept of gendered anti-Blackness proved indispensable to feminist antiviolence struggles of the late twentieth century.

Epistemology of Bodies as Closets: Queer Theologies and the Resurrection of Martyrized Christo-Morphic Bodies

This article seeks to rethink martyrdom, suffering, and resurrection from the perspective of queer theologies within the Latin American context and in dialogue with the praxis of the first faith communities who witnessed Jesus’ martyrdom. Starting from the queer body of Jesus—which incorporates in its praxis an ethos without gender violence and discrimination—the theological reflection contributes to the recovery of the fundamental principles of human experience. To this end, the analysis begins by addressing the feminist contribution to the understanding of violence against women to then rethink the intersection of bodies, sexuality, and violence against queer individuals and communities as a theological locus. It concludes by recognizing that queer theologies configure a resistant theological community that empowers queer bodies as a territory of hope of resurrection and transformative political action that does not disregard the suffering and the injustices perpetrated against them.