Citation

Arrows Change 1998; 4(2): 1-2.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12294312

Abstract

With 20% of women worldwide victimized by rape, the fear of rape haunts women throughout their lives. Victimization by violence costs women of reproductive age a loss of 5-16% of healthy years of life and is, thus, a major public health problem. Rape survivors incur medical costs 2.5 times those of non-victims and suffer problems with their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Interventions should involve 1) across-the-board political reforms, 2) integration of appropriate values into health education and training activities, 3) criminalizing gender violence with specific legislation, 4) creating gender-sensitive support groups, and 5) raising public consciousness. Some of these strategies are already being carried out in the Asia-Pacific region, but a paradigm shift is also needed to improve women's status and empower women by 1) reinterpreting discriminatory religious texts to eliminate biased interpretations that foster gender violence, 2) removing cultural relativity from considerations of rape and its impact, and 3) gender-sensitizing religious institutions so that rape survivors are no longer stigmatized.

Language: en