The Root of Violence

Girls live in a violent world. Some worlds are more violent, more desperate than others but we have all had a taste of the loss of bodily control that comes when abuse, verbal or physical, falls on your skin and sits there like a disease. Sometimes that violence leaves a bruise or wound. It always leaves a mark somewhere, even if it can't be seen. During this week's readings the many nuances and shades of violence were touched upon. Some violent acts blur themselves with cultural tradition. Others are outright assertions of dominance, spittings on, beatings, even burnings, that women accept as their fate.

Though violence occurs everywhere at varying degrees, there is a common thread to contributing to its propulsion throughout society and opposite sex relations. Disagree with me but I believe there are very few people that find solace in violence, that thrive in killing the spirit and instilling fear. Rather, an external force drives this impulse to control and to hurt: money. One of the young girls in Born into Brothels states this point simply: "Nobody here [in the Red Light district] understands anything but money." In her case her family was attempting to find a caretaker for her infant sibling so that her mother could attend an exhibition of her photography. But when put into the context of violence against women, the foundation of the acts seems to lean heavily on economic reasons. In the case of the mothers and grandmothers in Born into Brothels the women are subject to violent beatings and, in Avijit's mother's case, are burned alive, by the men who extort the money they earn. The severe disparity of income throughout the world makes earning money to put food on the table more of a priority than paying for boarding school. As Avijit says in the documentary, "We don't have the money to live, yet alone for studies." The violence becomes just a part of survival.

In the cases of female genital mutilation, controlling female sexuality is almost completely driven by economics. In undeveloped areas men tend the farms or raise the cattle that feeds the family while women tend to the family. A woman who has sex has the chance of getting pregnant. A woman who has sex with many men can get pregnant with the children of many men. So how is a man supposed to know that the children in his family that he is caring for are indeed his children and that he is feeding his own flesh and blood rather than other men's children? In this line of thinking practices like FGM are introduced. Does that make it right? When put in this context certainly not. But what about when FGM is described as a cultural tradition? African female circumcision practitioners, essentially all of which are female themselves, no longer recognize the act as controlling but rather as purifying. And circumcision isn't a completely foreign idea to Westerners who routinely carve the foreskin from their infant boy's penises, a practice that was also once thought to be 'purifying' a claim and has since been bolstered by little medical evidence. The line between culture and violence becomes very blurred here. I draw it at the feet of the young girls that die from sepsis because of cutting from rusted razor blade. I draw it at the infibulated girl whose vaginal stitching that succumbs to bacterial infection when a girl's menstrual blood and urine must leave her body through a tiny opening. When the life and vitality of human beings is threatened, as is the case in unsanitary and crude practices of FGM, I believe that culture has taken the wrong direction. In this case I don't think that 'outsiders' have the right to step into a village and demand that FGM stop. They do however have the right to educate villagers about the the health implications of the practice and set up a environment for women who are opposed to the practice can gather in and realize there are others who run counter-culture on the issue. I applaud the efforts of one African woman who speaks throughout a Current Controversy video on YouTube.com regarding FGM. The woman has started a basic education course that is free of charge for women who promise not to participate in FGM rituals. The women in the classes say that their communities reject them but seem to find strength in the classes, their education and in knowing there are others like them.

So how do we get rid of the economic disparities that fuel the vicious cycle tearing kids from school and dropping them into a world that places power over respect, violence over peace? To be honest, I'm not sure. As seen in Born into Brothels Zara does everything in her power to change the lives of the Red Light children. She battles bureaucracy, she lives where the children do and searches out schools that will take the children of prostitutes. In the end though, the vacuum of poverty sucked many of them back in. Very few of us will do what Zara does in her documentary. But we can make a difference in our own backyards. We can give of our time and money to help those who may be experiencing the same cycle of poverty and violence as the Red Light children. Many of us, through, the service learning project in this class are doing so already. When watching videos like Born Into Brothels the task at hand seems overwhelming. But we can't quit now.