夠了就是夠了！ | Enough!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=2u0o8khoQHI   

文：Winnie Byanyima

【摘譯】
她們說：「受夠了！」

我媽媽是一名社區領袖，她在我們的村裡莊帶領一個婦女小組，團結了村內的婦女，為自身及其女兒爭取權益，令我留下深刻印象。這些婦女大部分出身貧窮，她們在婦女小組中，了解到習以為常的「社會規範」如何剝削她們應有的權益，或遭暴力對待。

一些刻骨銘深的記憶仍縈繞不散：我的朋友和表姐妹因被迫嫁給陌生男人而哭得死去活來，她們有些甚至要嫁給年紀較大的男人。我親眼目睹媽媽開放家中收容一些年輕女孩，以逃離早婚的安排。但那些女孩只是少數幸運兒。

這已是很多年前的事，但同樣的悲劇從未間斷。時至今日，針對女性的暴力事件依然嚴重。全球每三名婦女中就有一名曾遭受到家暴、性侵犯，或其他形式的暴力對待。暴力令婦女和女童持續處於貧困，而貧困的婦女和女童更加容易受到暴力對待。

這些基於性別的暴力成因是多重的，但歸根究底，根源是性別不平等的制度和不公平的社會規範。

當社會認為男性無論在家庭上或是社會地位上都比女性優越，針對女性的暴力事件就會增加。這些觀念讓男性相信，他們有權以武力管束並糾正女性的「不正確行為」，而在婚姻中男性有權要求女性滿足他們的性慾。這些觀念形成一種具有性別偏見和不公平的潛規則，逐漸構成社會規範，是性別暴力現象的根本原因。

據印度、秘魯、巴西的研究顯示，若個人或社會接受及容忍丈夫有權打妻子，這些社會發生其他暴力行為的機率亦較高。聯合國一項調查指出，有性別偏見的男性虐妻的比率較一般男性高42%。

從童婚到女性割禮再到謀殺，針對婦女和女童的暴力植根於世界每個角落。這是一個惡性循環，但是並非不能打破。習以為常的社會規範，是可以改變的。夠了就是夠了！

因此，樂施會在今天啟動消除針對婦女和女童暴力的倡議行動，在全球多國與不同機構和持分者合作，呼籲公眾挑戰具有性別偏見和不公平的社會規範和潛規則，並齊心合力改變默許和助長性別暴力的社會規範，建立性別平等的社會制度和文化。

原文：

‘Enough’, they said.

I recall how my mother, a community leader, started and led women’s clubs in my village. Women in my village organised and stood together for their rights and those of their daughters. Their lesson has stayed with me. Through their clubs, women – most of them poor – educated themselves and learnt to distinguish rights from the ‘social norms’ that culture and tradition had forced upon them.

What ignited me most about their work was the power it gave to assert their rights, and the rights of their girls, be it to education or to inherit property.

And the power to say ‘enough’ in the face of patriarchy and violence.

Some of my most painful memories are of my friends and cousins crying as they were taken away to be married to men they didn’t know, often much older. I grew up seeing young girls sheltered by my mother in our house from being forced into early marriage. Those were the fortunate few.

That was many years ago and yet the same struggles endure. A half-century on, the global crisis of violence against women and girls is endemic. Around the world, one in three women will experience domestic abuse, sexual violence or some other form of violence in her lifetime.

Violence happens everywhere, across social groups and classes. Women and girls in poverty suffer most. From sexual harassment to child marriage or so-called honor killing, violence devastates the lives of millions of women and girls around the world and fractures communities. It is both a cause and a consequence of women’s poverty.

There are many complex causes driving this violence against women and girls. But it is ultimately rooted in the reality that women and men are not treated equally.

When communities share expectations that men have the right to assert power over women and are considered socially superior, violence against women and girls increases. It creates a reality whereby men can physically discipline women for ‘incorrect’ behavior, one where sex is men’s right in marriage.

These are examples of ‘social norms’, the unwritten rules which dictate how we behave. They are fundamental in allowing violence against women to flourish.

Let me explain. Most people, most of the time, conform to social norms. We continuously absorb subtle messages about what is and isn’t appropriate to do, say, and think from our family, our friends, our colleagues, from education, culture, the media, religion, and law. These sources are not neutral. They are informed by long histories of inequalities and prejudice, and by economic and political forces.

Our world is one in which social norms grant men authority over women’s behavior. They encourage men’s sense of entitlement to women’s bodies, spread harmful notions of masculinity, and enforce rigid gender roles.

These norms are insidious and powerful, often transmitted through throwaway comments or casual actions: telling a woman who was raped that ‘she was out late at night, drunk or travelling alone and was therefore responsible for the violence’ – or brushing off harmful misogyny as ‘locker room banter’.

Formal laws may not reign here. Attitudes like these create an environment in which violence against women and girls is widely seen as acceptable, even where laws call them illegal. Studies from India, Peru, and Brazil have linked the acceptance and approval of wife beating from individuals and communities with rates of actual violence. One UN study found that, on average, men with gender discriminatory attitudes were 42% more likely to abuse their partners.

The same study examined men’s reported motivation for rape. In most countries, 70–80% of men who had ever forced a woman or girl to have sex said they had done so because they felt entitled to have sex, regardless of consent.

We must be aware of how social norms operate before can we change how we respond. Violence against women and girls is sustained by a net of harmful attitudes, assumptions and stereotypes. It’s a net which so many are caught in: not always felt, but as strong as steel.

We can break free. We can change the harmful beliefs at the core of this problem. What was learned can be unlearned.

Oxfam is launching today a global campaign, firing up our long-standing work to End Violence Against Women and Girls.

‘Enough’ is the rallying cry of our campaign. I am reminded of the lessons I learnt from my mother.

Our campaign will see us stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the efforts of women and men around the world already engaged in this struggle. We will support women’s rights organisations especially in the South which are already challenging harmful social norms. We will organise.

All of us can play our part. It starts with challenging and changing our own behaviour and then engaging our our families, friends, neighbors and colleagues about unequal power between men and women. Governments and public institutions – and the private sector too – must ensure their policies tackle, not accentuate, harmful social norms.

The violence that women and girls face is not inevitable. Nor will it naturally disappear. We must act! Not another girl or woman should have to suffer. This must be an urgent imperative for all of us.

Please watch and share our campaign video and join the conversation on social media using #SayEnough.

Winnie Byanyima is Executive Director of Oxfam International. She is a leader on women’s rights, democratic governance and peace building.