Violence Against Women
Maylin Rosales
Women and children have been sexually abused and exploited for many years now, as history has shown. Either by official personnel, people they know, or by strangers.
Although the public view on rape and sexual violence victims has changed (accepting that men can be victims, women can be abusers, understand why victims may not speak up immediately for any personal reason, and clothing doesn't give consent), It is important to know more on the topic.
To understand that it isn't a recent topic and that it has been happening for far longer than media is covering.
Some cases covered happened in the 2000s but that doesn't mean it started in the 2000s. Since most cases covered in the U.S. are cases in the U.S. I 'll cover violence against women in Asia.
Keep in mind that all the content in this website can be triggering
(pedofillia, rape, sexual violence, ptsd, domestic violence, sexual abuse)
Violence against women is widespread in terms such as physical, psychological, sexual and emotional aspects.
Physical violence is a range of physically violent acts including hits, slaps, kicks, beatings, burns and the use of a weapon.
Sexual coercion and abuse contains sexual harassment, unwanted sexual touching, coerced sex and forced pregnancy.
korea
china
philippines
bangladesh
korea
Nth Room
contemporary-1900 to present
The Nth Room refers to a mass digital sex abuse scandal happening in South Korea.
A man called Baska (doctor in korean) ran a series of chat rooms, in a messenger app called Telegram, that distributed increasingly violent videos of women being sexually assaulted through blackmail.
Baska, now thought to be 25 year old Cho Joo Bin (see image above), was a facilitator of one of these chats. The investigation is still on going.
Users would pay high amounts of money to gain access to a tier room. The amount needed to be paid would increase starting from ~$80 as the tier number increased. As the tier increased the more abusive the videos became.
76 female victims have been identified. 16 of these 76 women were minors, the youngest being 9 years old.
A victim shared on weibo that she's struggling with anxiety & depression because of the Nth room. As well as constantly feeling stalked so she changed numbers and moved houses.
A victim shared one of the situations that happened to her while she was in middle school.
"As soon as I filmed the first video, I started bleeding. I sent him the video with the bleeding, and told him that it hurt so much and I couldn’t do it anymore. I got a reply about 10 minutes later. Just do it anyway. So I kept doing it and filming it and sending it, and he kept saying do it until the end, and then take it out. Even still, it hurts. My heart hurts a lot. It was just too much pain."
china
nanjing massacre
contemporary-1900 to present
The Nanjing Massacre also known as the Rape of Nanjing occurred from December 12, 1937 to January 1938.
Mass murder and mass rape were committed by Imperial Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing.
Historians have been unable to accurately estimate the death toll of the massacre since most military records on the massacre were hidden or destroyed shortly after Japan's surrender.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated that 20,000 women, including children and the elderly, were raped.
Troops went door to door raping women and children who were afterwards killed through explicit mutilation.
The following two testimonies can be disturbing to the viewer. Please watch them with caution.
A female survivor from the Nanjing Massacre testifies how she and many others were raped by troops and what she did in order to survive.
A male survivor from the Nanjing Massacre recounts the moment his mother and younger brother were harmed terribly.
nth room
contemporary-1900 to present
The Nth Room refers to a mass digital sex abuse scandal happening in South Korea.
Chinese authorities are investigating their country's version of the Nth rooms.
The website were all based in foreign countries and were no longer accessible after the investigation began according to China's National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.
The Chinese websites had users pay to watch pornographic content. Most of the content contained minors.
Each time a website was shut down, they only found the operator but not the filmers nor the users.
philippines
american rule
modern-1750 to 1900
contemporary- 1900 to present
In 1898, the U.S. gained control over the Philippines after the remaining Spanish forces in the country were defeated. However, they went against the American forces as the Americans tried to establish control in their country.
During the war, Filipino men and women were tortured in hopes of getting information American troops needed. Filipino women were raped, harmed, or killed in order to get information.
Women in the Philippines were still discriminated against.
Japanese occupation
contemporary- 1900 to present
On December 8, 1941, Japan attacked the Philippines ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
During the Japanese occupation, Filipino women were abused and violated. They were threatened and forced to work as "comfort women." "Houses of relaxation" were built so that Korean, Filipino, and Chinese women were forced to work.
Usually, young girls became comfort women.
Thousands of Filipino women were taken from their homes and forced to provide the Imperial Japanese Army sexual services.
Childhood sexual violence
contemporary- 1900 to present
Among children
aged 13<18 years, 13.7 percent experienced sexual abuse in the home. Of these, three percent experienced unwanted touching.
Common offenders of overall sexual violence in home were: brothers and cousins.
The prevalence of overall sexual violence in the community was 7.8 percent. Unwanted sexual touching was the most common form of sexual violence in the community.
Perpetrators of overall sexual violence in the community were neighbors, strangers, gangsters/addicts and others (adult men, chat mate/text mate, female friend, and brother’s friends).
Verbal insistence, “sweet-talking”, and verbal deception were the usual methods used.
About 3.2 percent of children and youth experienced forced consummated sex (anal, oral, and/or vaginal) during childhood.
However, the lifetime number of forced consummated sex among men was double the number of women in the school setting.
law
Article 266-A. Rape: When And How Committed. – Rape is committed:
1) By a man who shall have carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following circumstances:
a) Through force, threat, or intimidation;
b) When the offended party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious;
c) By means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority; and
d) When the offended party is under twelve (12) years of age or is demented, even though none of the circumstances mentioned above be present.
2) By any person who, under any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1 hereof, shall commit an act of sexual assault by inserting his penis into another person’s mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object, into the genital or anal orifice of another person.
bangladesh
The types of violence commonly committed against women in Bangladesh are, domestic violence, acid throwing and burning, sexual harassment, indecent assault, rape, kidnapping, abduction, trafficking and importation for immoral purposes and forced prostitution.
Many Bangladeshi women endure daily beatings, harassment for dowry, verbal abuse and acid attacks for refusing to comply with male demands.
Violence towards married women
contemporary- 1900 to present
A VAW Survey in 2011 identified that as many as 87% of currently married women have experienced any type of violence by their current husband and 77% reported any type of violence faced during the past year from the survey time.
Almost 90% of those who have been violated by their current husband has the past year experience of violence.
An UN study of 10,000 men in Asia and the Pacific, in 2013, found that half of those interviewed reported using physical and/or sexual violence against a female partner. Nearly a quarter of the men interviewed reported raping a woman or girl.
Of the men who had admitted to rape, the vast majority (72-97%) did not face any legal consequences.
The most common excuse that men cited for rape was related to sexual entitlement. Over 80% of men who admitted to rape in rural Bangladesh and China gave this response.
Activism
One Stop Crisis Centres are operating for victims of violence to receive medical treatment, police assistance, legal support and rehabilitation service.
Awareness raising programs and advocacy are being conducted with specific focus on engaging males in prevention of violence against women and changing the stereotype mind set in society.
The pro-women policies, strategies and measures of the Government undertaken in the last decades have empowered women and brought them into the main stream of development.