Neil Hill wants to know what can be classified as ‘terror’.
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For fifteen years the War on Terror has rarely been anything less than headline news. For many countries, terror has become their number one political priority. The widely broadcast actions of terrorists have provoked shock, anger, and revulsion. We are persuaded that behind every mosque, every veil or keffiyeh lies a jihadist. Fortunately and despite the propaganda and hype, the reality of extremist violent Jihad affecting you and I is virtually zero.
However, there is another form of terrorism which is perpetrated silently and insidiously on our streets. This type of terrorism is all too real within our apparently safe communities and is seemingly so acceptable it barely registers with politicians and the media.
Violence against women is also terrorism.
In Australia, the recent Lindt Cafe siege, where two people died, made headline news across the world. Immediately world leaders lined up to serve their usual soundbites on the evil of the terrorist. The headline writers and media pundits outdid each other sounding the bells of the apocalypse.
Hidden among all the hyperbolic hysterical journalism was this from the BBC. The police describe their assessment of the attacker Mon Haron Monis,
“…..he was known to the police, but we decided that he was not a threat.”
Not a threat!
The police made this statement despite Mons being on bail for conspiring to stab his ex-wife 17 times and burning her body, despite having more than 40 charges of aggravated sexual assault against him.
Who was Mons not a threat to exactly?
If domestic violence were taken as seriously in Australia as terrorism, the Lindt Cafe tragedy likely would never have happened. Mons should not have been out on bail! He was a very real threat.
◊♦◊
Over in Turkey, when 22 year old Özgecan Aslan was murdered, 10,000’s of women took to the streets to protest against violence toward women. Aslan was murdered because she fought off two men who were trying to rape her. Shockingly 500 women were murdered in Turkey last year by current or ex-partners and in February alone 27 more women were killed. These deaths don’t make the headlines and they are not a priority according to the Turkish Government.
Yet last week in Syria the tomb of a Turkish man who’s been dead for 700 years became the subject of a vague IS threat. The Turkish Government instantly mobilized its army and dispatched hundreds of ground troops, tanks, aircraft, and drones. The attacks made headline news across the world and became a priority to the politicians and the media.
In Canada 1,300 indigenous women are missing.
The Canadian Prime Minister also says these cases are not a national priority.
Then, in October, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau; a sad, deranged and delusional man, decided to attack ‘democracy’ in Canada with a vintage Winchester rifle. His act of ‘terror’ has instantly freed up millions of dollars, changed laws, engaged the media and led to unprecedented powers being handed to the police. This act of ‘terror’ is now a national priority in Canada. Yet it led to the death of just one man.
Meanwhile the indigenous women keep disappearing.
Global shame hangs heavy when 50,000 women died last year in what could be called domestic violence. Now is surely the time we need to change the definition of what actually constitutes terror.
Broadening the definition of terror is not an attempt to say there isn’t a problem with extreme violent Jihadists, nor to minimize or trivialize the pain and suffering of those who have been affected by the insanely complex post-colonial politics of the Middle East.
This is a plea on behalf of the feminine for us to change our priorities and to offer our energies and intentions to combat what is a daily, brutal act of terror for far too many women. After all, as men, if we don’t really believe this, how can we actually look at out daughters, mothers, and partners with integrity?
I will not be silent on this any longer.
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Photo: Some of the missing indigenous women of Canada, courtesy of CBIndependent
I do not understand all the MRA whiners who insist on hijacking a column like this and demanding “what about violence against men!?” Get serious. When was the last time you heard a man advised not to go somewhere at night, not to run at the park, or not to go somewhere alone, for fear that women would attack him? The threat of random violence against women is absolutely a form of terrorism. I am constantly advised to alter my life, to avoid things I want or need to do, because of the threat of random male violence.
It is very important for male victims of violence to have supports. It’s a shame this author disagrees.
It is very important that male victims of violence be taken seriously.
Tell that to your OWN to take you seriously! Tell them not to shame you when you cry, fall, need help, that your support your sisters, mother, daughters, tell your OWN not to shame you because you act humanely towards the opposite but then again you are a male and need his approval to make you feel “manly”.
This is an absolutely offensive article that does not acknowledge the brutal violence that boys and men face on a daily basis.
Domestic violence towards women is a very real and present issue. To seek to suggest that it isn’t by bringing in other types of violence is either; burying you head in the sand, saying that is is unimportant or suggesting that it is acceptable. When we raise the mirror it is sometimes difficult to like what we see and so we deflect or deny or become angry. Male to male violence occours and it is unacceptable. Female to male violence occours and is unacceptable. However, rape, physical violence and murder are a common and disgraceful reality for far too many… Read more »
@ Neil Hill
Or it’s like telling someone who has nothing to eat that the worst thing in the world is being only able to eat one meal a day. As bad as you think that violence against women isn’t taken seriously, violence against men is taken much less seriously. When compared to violence against men, violence against women might as well be the number one concern in the world.
I think I may see where you are coming from.
One definition of terrorism is “the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism)
Based on that yes you could say that domestic violence, rape, etc… are terrorism.
However for as far as I can remember terrorism has been about the political. As in using those things to force a desired political change.
It seems that you are seeking to redefine the scope of a word to suit your own purposes much like what has been done with rape and sexism.
“It all too often appears on this website that the only articles that are well received in the discussion of violence are those articles that either specifically address violence from the male victim side, violence of children, or when violence is inclusive to all people.” – It is supposed to be a site for and about men? Are there many women’s sites that Focus on treating men better to the degree that this men’s site focuses on women’s issues? I’m sorry if men here are failing to hide our pain and suffering from the public eye to the degree that… Read more »
LOL, i am in with the mod squad
looks like my last comment never made it our of m od er a tion
Strike that … my comment wasn’t approved. … I love this site.
is there any wonder why I cancelled my membership?
I don’t think most people here are against addressing the set of problems that is violence against women in of itself. The objection however is the false-categorisation that occurs when people set out to speak about these things. It’s the sort of thing that perpetuates the under-representation and lack of empathy for men and their experiences, false-stereotypes and disproportionately shapes the perception of the state of affairs in the world, all of which happens all too frequently, and quite evident in Neil’s article and follow up comments. The false-categorisation occurs in this article when it identifies nasty, but unrelated incidents… Read more »
@ Satoshi, please be clear. This is your objection……
Why does this author not care about male victims? They matter.
Neil, thanks for taking violence against women seriously and not seeing our ability to talk about it as being the enemy of violence against men. The enemy of violence against men is the violence that is inflicted on men, not a conversation that looks to address violence against women. It does not take anything away from, does not minimize any other kind of violence out there. It’s like suggesting that talking about violence against men takes something away from talking about violence agaisnt children. Addressing one problem takes nothing away from what another group of people face. And sometimes it’s… Read more »
The enemy of violence against men is the violence that is inflicted on men, not a conversation that looks to address violence against women. It does not take anything away from, does not minimize any other kind of violence out there. Well, not quite. It depends how you talk about it, and when hyperbolic terms like “terrorism” are used to describe gendered violence against women…but not violence against men, that is minimising that issue men face given that violence against men is often more prevalent. We are objecting to the fact that given in many societies that men are at… Read more »
@ Erin “It all too often appears on this website that the only articles that are well received in the discussion of violence are those articles that either specifically address violence from the male victim side” Well received by whom? I’ve seen these exact same articles you’ve mentioned get “derailed” by individuals saying that injustice against men is unimportant. I see no push back from you. I’ve noticed that you’re actually sympathetic to these individuals. https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/ray-j-badly-beaten-megasahd/ In these cases, would you also say that “efusing to discuss the topic to the point of completely ignoring it in favor of what… Read more »
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/violence-against-women-eu
http://www.economist.com/node/17900482
http://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue?language=en#
Fact is I could spend the rest of the day pulling up article after article showing how wrong some of the comments on here are but you “know” that deep down and frankly, you are on the wrong site for attempting to propogate your inadequacy.
@ Charles De Richelieu And Charles I can do the same. In fact, I can and have done a better job of showing just how incorrect you are. how can violence against women not be taken seriously when you have the UVA incident. A woman males an allegation and a frat house gets vandalized and it’s members go into hiding. Since this accusation has become so thoroughly discredited, have their tormentor come to justice? Charles De Richelieu, just because you’re position is indefensible doesn’t mean that anyone who disagrees with you is a troll. You’re just wrong, but I suppose… Read more »
John it “ISN’T” the fact they have been sentenced or even caught. its the FACT that it happened in the first place. Now you and the other Trolls on here might want, although i doubt it, to do a little “research”? instead of simply “feeling” hard done by!
http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures
@ Charles De Richelieu “John it “ISN’T” the fact they have been sentenced or even caught. its the FACT that it happened in the first place. Now you and the other Trolls on here might want, although i doubt it, to do a little “research”? instead of simply “feeling” hard done by! ” So you’re saying that she didn’t rape the boy because otherwise that happened too. I noticed that you never mentioned that the Indian victims male companion was savagely beaten. That happened too. It just wasn’t worth mentioning, right, because it didn’t happen to a woman. The reaction… Read more »
There’s no doubt at all there are transgressions against men – but Neil’s article is highlighting issues that need to be looked at – so therefore it is gender specific. It’s a failed society that allows these things to go without being made transparent. The issue about under-representing violence against males of course needs to be looked at – but this article is excellent and should stand.
Large numbers of indigenous women disappearing and the “boys” want to whinge about their inability to handle their partner hurling a pot at them when they come home pissed. Psychology statistics do indeed suggest that most domestic violence is instigated by the woman, but then, when a woman hurls a pot at you for coming home pissed that does not give a real man the right to punch her teeth out which is the usual end result. And the discussion was not “derailed” it clearly STARTED as a real man wanting to get some other real men to address an… Read more »
@ Charles De Richelieu
“Meanwhile 5 “men” raped and murdered in a most horrible way a young Indian student because “she was out late (after 6:30pm) even though accompanied by a male ”
And 4 of them have been sentenced to death. Yup, when are we going to start taking this seriously.
@ Charles De Richelieu One more thing. Contrast that with the way female rapists are treated. “Denise Harvey, 47, was convicted in 2008 of five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, a boy who was on her son’s baseball team. She is wanted in the U.S., where she is facing a 30-year prison sentence. “The [Immigration and Refugee Board] granted Ms. Harvey protected person status. This status allows Ms. Harvey to apply for permanent residency,” wrote a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada in an email to the National Post Thursday. Such rulings involving Americans are rare: The… Read more »
I’ll care when male victims get even a fraction of the attention that women do. The discussion should NEVER have been derailed into a women’s only issue.
Which leads me to think that the word f em in is m is a word that’s flagged
And of course my com ment is in mo der a t ion
patience….
Neil: With all due respect, you are wrong , as a Canadian myself, Violence against women is taken very seriously , in fact the RCMP is keeping very detailed records on VAW especially Native women, yet, in Canada almost 2x as men Native men have gone missing in this same time period and not a peep about it.
Men outside of the top 5% simply don’t matter, cannon fodder. This article makes that point clear yet again……The cultural lack of empathy along with disrespect toward injured, damaged Men and Boys is crystal clear…..yet some will do everything they can to keep the cultural focus of empathy only on women. Why? and Why on a men’s site is this the overwhelmingly consistent focus?
As a matter of fact, sadly a man who developed the first and only battered men shelters in Canada ultimately killed himself after many years of having no support. Neil. you said “This has a focus on patriarchal violence, on how it is perceived within our societies. On how it is not a seeming priority, how it is tolerated as acceptable, how it is not taken seriously as an issue, etc” Say what? How many years was VAWA in affect? How many programs were developed through VAWA over how many years? How many men have been incarcerated because they fought… Read more »
In other words, Neil. “I will not be silent on this any longer.”
@ Phipi. No, absolutely No! The RCMP are not taking this serioulsy. In fact it is a matter of national shame in Canada that this still continues, and if the best that you can offer is that the RCMP keep detailed records, then your ideas and my ideas of taking action differ widely. The fact is that the Michael Zehaf-Bibeau attack that killed one man, changed laws freed up millions of dollars and gave the RCMP unprecenented powers, yet missing women remain a non-priority. This is an article about violence towards women. The problems that men face is the subject… Read more »
Avern, Thank you for your comment. This article is about a specific issue. Violence against women. It is not about violence against men, which is a different story. This has a focus on patriarchal violence, on how it is perceived within our societies. On how it is not a seeming priority, how it is tolerated as acceptable, how it is not takeb serioulsy as an issue, etc. Sadly too many men that have taken the time to comment on this in previous threads have taken a similar line to you, I just don’t see how this is helpful or relevant.… Read more »
Neil, breast cancer and testicular cancer are treated as separate issues because they ARE separate issues due to different anatomies (yes I know men can get breast cancer too but it’s much more rare).
Intimate partner violence in both directions are NOT separate issues but are treated as such due to damaging stereotypes and the gap in empathy to the detriment of men.
If you can’t see this relatively simple distinction, then maybe you should do some more learning, research and analysis before writing about such serious issues to a wider audience.
@ Satoshi, it is called an anaolgy. Not meant to be taken literally!
However both are cancers and are therefore the same issue.
Domestic violence towards women is a societal cancer, it is a specific issue. Female violence towards men happens, but like breast cancer in men it is rare.
An analogy which GROSSLY misrepresents the issues that you’re talking about, and also highlights a flaw in your thinking. Please read my other comment about false-categorisation and why that concept is unhelpful when talking about issues of violence. Demonstrating your flaw in thinking, how is breast cancer and testicular cancer viewed by you as the same problem (as you said, because they’re both cancers) when at the same time, domestic violence against women is viewed by you as a separate problem to domestic violence against men (they’re both domestic violence, right)? If we assume the former is again true, is… Read more »
@Satoshi I will simplify it for you. I read your comment and responded accordingly. There is no false categorisation, by any definition of terrorism, the violence perpatrated against women by men is a form of terrorism. One such definition states; “systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal ” So much of the violence displayed against women falls into that category, whether it is rape, murder, female genital mutilation, domestic abuse or other agressions. The violence is specifically about conrol and domination and the use of techniques desined to terrify and subjugate. In this context it is a… Read more »
“how it is not a seeming priority, how it is tolerated as acceptable, how it is not takeb serioulsy as an issue, etc.” Based on WHAT exactly?? Violence against men is treated as BLOODY COMEDY for god’s sake! There are entire government laws and agencies SPECIFICALLY made to deal with violence against women. Meanwhile, there are people who will go out of their way to deny that women are even capable of committing domestic violence and that if, somehow, a wife DOES end up beating the pulp out of her husband “well… he must have deserved it anyway.” Exactly how… Read more »
@ 8ball. The fact that society requires entire government departments and specific laws to deal with domestic violence towards women, is actually an example of just how widespread it is.
Nowwhere do I suggest that female to male violence does not occour, but it is very rare in comparison.
I find it so difficult to understand why some men cannot just accept that domestic violence towards women is unacceptable, unless of course they think that it is acceptable and not an issue.
Please talk about violence towards men, the GMP has published articles on this.
No its an example of the lies that were used to push through legislation. Or do you really believe politicians and their lobby groups are always so honest and above table? their are literally 100,000s of studies world wide that all say the same thing – DV between men and women occur at parity. Its not a gender issue its a human generational issue. Its the same lies that saw Erin Pizzey receive death threats and flee from the UK – Feminists didn’t like what her studies said about women. The only studies that show it to be a gendered… Read more »
@ Neil Hill “This has a focus on patriarchal violence, on how it is perceived within our societies. On how it is not a seeming priority, how it is tolerated as acceptable, how it is not takeb serioulsy as an issue, etc.” How is violence against women not taken seriously at least in the U.S.? We have a Violence Against Women Act which explicitly denies men STOP assistance. We have DV shelters for women. Where are the shelters for men? We have many, many instances where men have been arrested and / or convicted and have even served many years… Read more »
@ John Anderson I suggest that you write an article about male violence, do something positive. Simply taking a few rare and unacceptable cases and using that to suggest that their is any form of equiavalnce, simply puts you in the same camp as the climate change deniers, et al……
@ Neil Hill
There is no equivalence. The efforts of western society to combat violence against women far exceeds their efforts to combat violence against men. The backlash you receive isn’t because people don’t feel that violence against women isn’t a problem, it’s because the examples you’ve cherry picked imply that violence against men is taken more seriously and it’s not. It’s in fact taken less seriously than violence against women.
@John Gottman Anderson the ‘backlash’ is coming from a small group of 4 or 5 men who seem to be in deinial about this as an issue and wish to push their own agenda as opposed to the more than 1000 people who have liked or shared this article so far. It is a little like the climate deniers and NRA lobby, very vocal but in the minority.
Male violence to other males, to the environment and to women is a part of the overall patriarchal pattern.
And women don’t commit violence?
Men suffer more violence than women. So is violence against men terrorism?
@ avern
Even those numbers are low as men are the overwhelming victims of false accusations of violence, which are all considered “non-violent”. The effects on the wrongly accused like the loss of liberty are nothing short of violence. We wouldn’t consider kidnapping non-violent. This method also uses the power of the state and aren’t we always told that the abuse of state power is supposed to be worse?
@ John Anderson. Can you please explain the relevance of your comment to this article on violence towards women?
@ Neil Hill
“If domestic violence were taken as seriously in Australia as terrorism, the Lindt Cafe tragedy likely would never have happened. Mons should not have been out on bail! He was a very real threat.”
“A woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her has been found guilty of murder in the 2011 stabbing of her boyfriend. ”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/23/crystal-mangum-duke-rape-murder_n_4329191.html?
@ John Anderson….. two wrongs do not a right.
Can you please explain why you did not mention male victims of violence?
Hi Avern
I look forward to your documentation of this world wide.
In my own country the ratio of murderd men :women is 50:50.
I do not have the facts of all kinds of violence.