Laura Bashraheel Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Today (Nov. 25) marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, recognized by the United Nations General Assembly every year since 1999. Governments, international organizations and NGOs are invited to organize activities designed to raise public awareness of violence against women on this particular day. According to the UN, women's activists have marked Nov. 25 as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960 of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo. The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden. In Saudi Arabia, where the issue of violence against women has only been gaining recognition within the past six years, human rights advocates have called for more laws to deal with this problem. They have been calling for anti-harassment and domestic abuse laws for years. In May this year, the Shoura Council voted for a draft law on violence against women to be submitted to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. The proposed law includes 17 articles that define the different protections against abuse in its various forms and the legal action that can be taken against those accused of such offenses, in addition to calling for more public awareness on the concept of abuse and its implications. The law, however, does not cover harassment in public places. The Shoura Council's move was long awaited by human rights advocates and family protection groups that have been calling for justice for those who suffer domestic abuse or harassment in the workplace. The draft law stipulates a punishment of imprisonment and a fine for those proven guilty of abuse. It suggests imprisonment of one month to one year and a fine of SR5,000 to SR50,000, according to local media reports. However, the law has not been passed as of yet. According to the UN, up to 70 percent of women experience violence in their lifetime. From 500,000 to 2 million people are trafficked annually into situations including prostitution, forced labor, slavery or servitude, according to estimates. Women and girls account for about 80 percent of these victims. The cost of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds $5.8 billion a year: $4.1 billion is for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion. In Saudi Arabia, however, the true picture of violence against women remains unclear due to a lack of statistics and victims' reluctance to report abuse.
