Progress has been made, but lack of respect for women still exists

Some people believe that in the 21st century, women have finally achieved equality in society. They think that women are not disrespected anymore because of their gender. Many women nowadays can study, have a career, marry and have children, they can ‘have it all’. But disrespect can be brutal. When a woman is attacked, the questions that usually follow are: “What was she doing alone? Why was she out at this time? What was she wearing?” Why is the victim blamed automatically? Based on this mentality, judgments around the world are often lenient towards attackers. On January 18, 2015, former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner raped a fellow student. Despite evidences and two witnesses, the judge condemned the rapist to a six-month jail sentence. The judge was quoted saying: “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.” This statement would be ironic, if it was not so dangerous to release a rapist after six months of jail. Based on this verdict, the attacker would learn that if he attacks a woman again, he will only receive a light slap on the wrist. Societies around the world also tend to condemn victims. British filmmaker Leslee Udwin made a documentary, titled ‘India’s Daughter’, about the 2012 Delhi rape case where four men raped and tortured a 23-year-old student. One of the attackers was interviewed and stated that the woman was responsible for what he and his partners did to her. Udwin decided to make her documentary accessible to everyone on YouTube. She hoped to change people’s mind-sets. But after 24 hours, the Indian government asked YouTube to remove the documentary from the channel, thus obstructing the possibility of raising awareness on violence against women. Today, I am more respected as a woman than my mother or my grandmother were at my age. However, if women are bothered (or worse) by men, people will search for faults in them, to explain what they might have done to provoke the men. Punishment against gender disrespect should be harsher. Huge progress in women’s rights have been made, but gender disrespect is still very much alive. From Dr Joanna Seraphim Assistant professor of Anthropology Canadian University — Dubai at the