BE AFRAID, be very afraid. Misogynist male megalomaniacs are taking over.
The latest evidence for the decline in women’s rights is the Russian move to decriminalise domestic violence in cases where it does not cause “substantial bodily harm” and doesn’t happen more than once a year.
Why should any form of bodily harm — substantial or not — be decriminalised?
And since when should perpetrators be given a free pass to beat their relatives every 12 months?
The Russian parliament voted for the change 380-3 and it’s already been enacted after being rubber-stamped by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Already fears that the move will encourage domestic violence have been realised. Police in the country’s fourth biggest city, Yekaterinburg, have been responding to an extra 200 incidents of domestic violence a day since the law was changed.
The law has been defended by Russian ultra-conservatives who say it strengthens the family and the right of parents to beat their children. They say families shouldn’t be broken up for the sake of “a slap”. What else can you expect from a country where an old proverb says “If he beats you, it means he loves you”.
It comes as an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 women die every year in Russia as a result of domestic violence, and an estimated one in three Russian women is physically abused by their partner. Just because it’s spearheaded by a woman, MP Yelena Mizulina, doesn’t make it right. Conservative women are often co-opted by conservative men to do their bidding.
It comes as US President Donald Trump gagged aid agencies that receive US funds from discussing abortion with women, illustrating yet again how women’s bodies and rights are viewed as expendable.
He’s also indicated his intention to appoint more anti-choice conservatives to the US Supreme Court.
Moreover, Trump’s admiration of Putin — despite acknowledging his role as a “killer” — signals a broader return to the traditional male-dominated heterosexual family as the cornerstone of society.
Concern about this is reflected in the images of a topless Putin caressing a topless and pregnant Trump beamed on an Apple store this week courtesy of the app Hater.
It’s a worrying development at a time when Islamic women’s rights and safety continues to be under attack in extremist Muslim regimes. These females, subject to female genital mutilation, restrictions on their movements and role in public life, so-called honour killings and arranged marriages, rely on democracies such as the United States to take a strong stand on women’s rights.
But Trump’s ability to stand up for these women is under a cloud when he is willing to erode women’s safety and health in his own country.
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