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Statistics show up the Swiss

By Vaiju Naravane

GENEVA, MARCH 10. Tiny Switzerland is home to a mere 7.2 million people. It is extremely rich, modern, industrialised and democratic with excellent health care and a 100 per cent literacy rate. So why has this proud nation with its fiercely democratic traditions failed to curb violence against women?

"It is not a question of democracy, education, freedom or civic sense. Which is why the statistics for wife beating are about the same in the developed and the developing world. It is fallacious to think that there is a link between democracy, prosperity, education levels and domestic violence," counters Elizabeth Rod-Grangé, a Swiss sociologist and activist with Solidarité Femme, a women's rights group that runs shelters for battered women in Geneva.

"Domestic violence is a problem where one individual exercises power over another.

The need to dominate and to beat the other into submission is born out of an individual's personal history and experiences and has nothing whatsoever to do with his public façade. I know of high-level bank executives, professors, lawyers even judges who abuse and ill-treat their wives and it is not as if these highly educated members of the ruling elite do not understand human rights and the democratic process.

In the West because of legislation and democracy, the woman now stands a better chance of redress or has more options and solutions available," she explains.

Julia Rios is living proof of the fact that domestic violence cuts across all social barriers and that judges, policemen and lawmakers have often displayed a bias against women.

A microbiologist of Brazilian origin, she was married to a Swiss architect. The publication in 2000 of her book Le Piège (The Trap) in which she describes savage beatings, repeated marital rape, sequestration and financial deprivation, revealing the double standards that underlie Swiss society, created shock and consternation in Switzerland. "I decided to write the book after a judge ruled in favour of my husband saying my injuries were self-inflicted. I wanted to tell other women that as a victim of violence, one need not feel guilty or ashamed. Women are not the cause of what they endure. Also we must not put up with inhumane treatment. What violent partners reserve for us is not love, it is a hunger for power disguised as love, jealousy," she said in an exclusive interview at a Geneva hotel.

It is only now in retrospect, Julia Rios says, that she realises the violence started long before her husband Bradley began hitting and abusing her. "He was extremely possessive and with time his jealousy became worse. He would spy on me, follow me to work, he would intimidate my friends. I became a virtual prisoner. He would confiscate my money, dole out a pittance.

He listened to my phone calls, opened my letters. Why did I put up with it? Why did I lie to my parents, pretend everything was all right? Because I was brought up with the idea that one married for good and that a woman's place was next to her man. I was three months pregnant when I left him. I was frightened his beatings would damage my child. The daughter I was carrying gave me strength."

Swiss social sociologist Lucienne Gillioz, author of a study entitled "Masculine Domination and Violence towards Women in the Swiss Family" told The Hindu in a lengthy interview in Geneva: "Our study showed that every shade and class of woman is affected by domestic violence. On the basis of an extensive qualitative and quantitative study we were able to establish that: more then one in five women is affected by physical and or sexual violence in her lifetime.

More precisely, 12.6 per cent of Swiss women or more than one in eight suffer physical violence, while one in nine or 11.6 per cent had suffered sexual violence. As far as psychological violence is concerned, over 40.3 per cent of those questioned were affected."

One of several false assumptions made about domestic violence is that violence between spouses or other intimate partners is a private family affair that brooks no interference from the outside world. Policemen, judges, neighbours or office colleagues are often reluctant to take action whether it be registering complaints, handing down sentences or calling the police.

"Even if people know, even when they can hear the battered wife's terrified and often terrifying screams next door, neighbours do not call the police. What happens between the four walls of a home is considered private, sacrosanct. People feel guilty denouncing their neighbours.

Despite its apparent modernity ours is a very conservative society. Women won the vote very late. We are a discreet, non-demonstrative people and a public washing of linen is frowned upon. It is this attitude we have to change. Violence must no longer be tolerated. Period," explains Elisabeth Rod-Grangé.

It was only in 1997, when a scientifically conducted study showed that 20 per cent of Swiss women suffered from domestic violence that the taboo was broken.

After that it has been an uphill task persuading legislators to make laws protecting women. Since so many women love their violent partners, they feel guilty accusing them.

A large percentage of victims — as many as 75 per cent — withdraw their complaints once the husband has apologised. The new Swiss law makes it mandatory for the state to pursue the offender, even if the victim has withdrawn her complaint.

In Geneva alone, last year over 1,000 complaints were registered.

Leaving a violent man is often a long drawn out and traumatic process. Many women feel that with love they will be able to pacify their husbands' violent urges. The reverse is usually the case.

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