As human beings, we play a variety and significant role in life. We have these certain rights as well as responsibilities to hold up to. Regardless of our age, social status, or gender, we deserve to be respected and to be treated well because after all, we are all humans who share the same equal rights.
The Republic Act 9262 - Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 (Republic Act 9262) is a law that seeks to address the prevalence of violence against women and their children providing protective measures for victims mainly, a woman-complainant and her children committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment. In short, these forms of violence against women are addressed on physical, sexual, psychological, and economic abuse.
According to “World Health Organization” they indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Women are most likely to experience intimate partner violence if they have low self-esteem, don’t have the guts to voice out their feelings, fear of abandonment, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, and attitudes accepting violence, and so on. Violence is present in the case of their children too.
As an advocate of women's rights in general, I can say that despite this existing law, violence against women and their children is still rampant. Day by day, the number of victims is continually increasing. The idea of loving someone who you love turns out horrible when your expectation exceeds beyond what it is ought to be. In return, you receive beatings, humiliation, forced sexual demands, and more likely develop mental illness. Family is considered as a unit, legally and traditionally. It’s about connectedness, belonging, and responsibility. But, with violence, the essence of family is at risk. Family is the most important influence in a child’s life. However, if the household he or she lives in resorts to violence, then it doesn’t only highly affects the child’s behavior but also his or her relationship with parents, and towards other people. To answer the question about “what can we do to stop the violence?”, if there is no abuser then violence won’t likely exist. My point is how can we prevent violence if we don’t know and understand the causes of one’s violence? Through that, we can prevent abusers from abusing someone by seeking guidance from mental health professionals and undergo therapy sessions for anger management and such. Therefore, we can both save the victim and the abuser from this cruel and imperfect world we live in.
As a product of a broken family, even though I didn’t have the chance to experience violence from my father due to the fact that he abandoned me before I was born but instead I experienced humiliation towards a drunk neighbor who happens to be the father of my friend. All I did was to help my friend escaped from his abusive father, and he ends up hurting me verbally. Therefore, violence is not only limited within our families but also perpetrated outside our families. For the provisions of this said law, I recommend that they need to focus more on protecting women against domestic violence because violence is more rampant abroad, also to secure children’s welfare, and review this said law to date.
To all women in colors: single, married, or divorced, knowing your worth leads to a life well-lived.