We women still have a long way to go
Yes, it is a relief when justice works. When domestic abusers pay a price for their actions, when the system follows the legal procedure without discounts due to personal acquaintances or influence from powerful friends.
There is no end to the serious injuries inflicted on women by their husbands and partners, the – sometimes – fatal attacks, and the open use of violence. In the first five months of 2024, there have been 5,500 arrests of perpetrators of family violence. Women tolerate abuse, are threatened, and remain silent. They endure and remain silent. They are scared. They become stuck in a nightmarish reality until the moment they decide to claim the basic rights that they have been deprived of. The Greek state has taken important steps – recently also in the form of laws – toward protecting and supporting the victims of abuse, even when the victims themselves refuse to report the offender.
But what about the women themselves? There are social factors and psychoanalytical interpretations that have been adequately analyzed. But apart from the darkness of the soul and mind to which we succumb and surrender, and the human contradictions, there is also the resistance of common sense. We have to strengthen this too in all of us. With the first signs of abuse, women need to mobilize, to share, to be informed, not to tolerate such behaviors, even if they think they could endure them. In abuse, it is the first thoughts that count, not the second ones.
What is happening to us women? On the one hand, we claim our rights, we conquer, we are visible and dominant, and, on the other, we think that we also need a safety net (social, economic), even if it occasionally comes with a “little” abuse. A little at first, which then becomes a normality, and a lifelong injury thereafter until (if) we react. Entire generations were raised – and still are – to believe that “a woman should fear (obey) the man.”
No legislative measures will ever be enough if women don’t also lend a hand. The rule of law is the most important component, the only defense in this human “jungle.” The second one, however, is us, women: the choices we make, the self-esteem, the calculations, the protection mechanisms we develop, and how much we value our life. The abuser will be punished by the law. Us women still have a long way to go.
