stop violence

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women


It is quite natural to feel attracted towards the opposite gender but attraction should not lead to any violence. Love is never forceful. We are more in need of a generation that believes in gender equality and perceives love above mere opinions, sentiments or physical pleasures. They should learn to win hearts and not body. After all, we are in need of a society where men and women can collaboratively contribute to developmental factors of a society.

Each year, people all over the world unite for the elimination of women violence and organize many programs to create awareness starting from 25th of November and ending on 10th of December.

According to researches conducted worldwide, every one in three women face some kind of violence in their lifetime that too by someone really close, a loved one, a trustworthy acquaintance or their life partners.Similarly, another research put forward the data that 35% women all over the world go through one or the other kind of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Meanwhile, men happen to unintentionally hurt the sentiments of women which sometimes might lead to violence as well.The spectrum of violence against women has a wide range. The sexual violence includes activities that makes them feel uncomfortable, intimidated or any kind of explicit content.We might be habitual of eve teasing or making women feel intimidated just to feed our ego and prove our masculinity. This is wrong, so before pointing out others, how about starting the change from within?

It is quite natural to feel attracted towards the opposite gender but attraction should not lead to any violence. Love is never forceful. We are more in need of a generation that believes in gender equality and perceives love above mere opinions, sentiments or physical pleasures. They should learn to win hearts and not body. After all, we are in need of a society where men and women can collaboratively grow towards a better society.

United Nations Committee’s meeting in 1999 decided to mark 25th of November as an international day for elimination of violence against women.

The role of women in the human civilization history is remarkable and praiseworthy. The existence of human begins from a mom’s womb, nourishes among the presence of sisters’ love, wife’s companion and contributes to the co-existence of human essence as a whole. The essence of our existence began right from a woman, we grew within their love, pursued a beautiful life because of their compassion; their undying and unconditional love never stopped for us but it is such a pity that the one who introduced us to the world is being a victim of violence in the same world. The giver of such love, compassion and life deserve no violence and hence today is the day to preach out the end to any kind of violence they have been facing.

Televisions and print medias nowadays are full of news related to women violence. The news reading rape cases, burnt cases of dowry system and superstitious beliefs shatters our heart. Not only in Nepal; the brutal cases of violence against women can be heard anywhere around the world.

The violence against women is the violence against human and therefore, we all should collectively work on ending this. Women violence is one of the major factors affecting gender inequality in Nepal. It’s not that the cases of violence against  women are not addressed lawfully but despite all the efforts, the problems related to women violence are still prevailing. Today’s day unites people all over the world for the common cause of ending women violence. There are abundant examples that clearly show how the society with equal participation of men and women lead to a civilized society in terms of infrastructures and awareness. When a woman in the house is educated, the whole house is educated. The governmental and nongovernmental approaches for conducting awareness campaigns about women education and vocational training are increasing as well. Gender equality is mandatory for peace, security and opportunities.

We, especially Hindus worship lots of goddesses and respect them with faith and grace. This should inspire us to see goddess in every woman. Even the small ritual in the Hindu culture teaches a lot of people to actually put the idea of respect into actions.

In our society too, discrimination can be seen within perception itself. The society believes that masculine works are supposed to be done by men and any work that requires less efforts are for women. It might seem negligible but the seed of violence starts from these thoughts. Be it women or a society, unless the nation supports gender equality, none of the campaigns against women violence will succeed. Most of the cases of women violence don’t even get addressed.

Since the government has encouraged gender equality in terms of rights and responsibilities, you can report the case of violence to concerned authority.

To choose to remain silent is to encourage violence. When we say women violence, we usually imagine a violent man but in most of the cases, women are more responsible for causing the violence. Starting right from home, if we do not change the way we perceive opinions regarding violence, it is more likely to cause one. So, women themselves should also be strongly aware about women violence.

The existence of men and women is interdependent and none can survive in the absence of another. So, let us all join hands together with a commitment to remain aware towards women violence. May the violence end for the empowerment of women. Good day ahead.

Written by Suyog Dhakal
English version: Brigid Shrestha


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