Gender8th

Presenter : Oussama Bziker

Chapter : Gender and violence

 The author of the article was a victim of domestic violence. She was talking abt gender
based violence but including her own experience. It gives it some legitimacy. At the
beginning of the article the author makes this distinction between how violence used
to take place in the private space and with time has become a public issue.
 The causes of domestic violence against women: some of the gender issues. The
individual abuser and the victim do not operate in a vacuum; rather they are nested
within the supportive circles of culture and social institutions. It means both entities
are not in a separate environment but they are part of social institutions that support
this violence.
 Teacher: the article talks about the cultural and ideological background related to the
phenomenon.
 About ideologies; masculinity and femininity are not only different but are essentially
in opposition to one another. The article talks about the process as I mentioned earlier
in relation to gender differences. The social differences create what is to be a man and
what it means to be a woman and the different roles that are assigned from day one.
The division in gender roles is what creates violence. Then she talks about stratification,
ranking women below men. This includes also, their social class and other factors.
 Teacher, that’s what we talked about in the first article by Lorber, the idea of gender
ranking. The notions of masculinity and femininity contribute a lot to gender based
violence. They way women are perceived. When we talk about the process of
stratification we talk about ranking. So, when a gender is ranked above the other it
somehow legitimizes, unconsciously in people’s minds, this sort of violent practices
together with the fact that there is always a kind of power and status of power
relationship which is established. It’s also reinforced by the social institutions. That’s’
why we need to deconstructing gender stratification process and find out more about
these notions of masculinity and femininity. These very concepts, one is ranked above
the other and also traditional masculinity is imbued with a sense of power, physical
power, repression, seen as a sign of maleness as opposed to femininity, which is seen
as a signs of either fragility or passivity , vulnerability. All these of course can
contribute to maintain and somehow establish this kind of a relationship where you
have violence. The article by Loubna Skalli on sexual harassment is very related to our
discussion. Skalli is deconstructing why women keep silent. It is because of the ideology
they grow up; they grow up thinking they should be passive, silent, that they are weak
all of these things contribute. Violence is the result of the way mas and fem are
constructed.
 Hatim contributes to the discussion with nonsense.
 Nouafel talks about the article of Skalli, one of the cofounders of the Egyptian
movement refuses to call herself a feminist because she sees what she is doing to be
more related to human rights.
 Oussama, according to the article, there are some feminine and masculine
characteristics. Softness, concession, dependency….for men, its reason intellect,
strength ... These characteristics are used to keep women vulnerable and to be
trespass by men and exert domestic violence on them. Women convey vulnerability
and men convey, power and aggression. In the article there is also, the myth of
meritocracy meaning you can do whatever you want as long as u set your mind to it,
related to men, and rewards are based s reinforce gender roles. For example, Tarbia
Niswiya is a subject in middle school taught only to girls whereas boys had to take a
course named Technology instead. This is a concrete example from our culture that
supports gender segregation. Lorber argues in the article that teachers are not doing
anything to change the situation she says that in school girls are always praised for
their appearances and boys conceived as the trouble makers. Hatim saying a lot of
none sense. Couldn’t keep up with what he says.
 The idea of Female invisibility we can see it in class or in public space where boy
dominate. There was a study done in Australia; assigning skirts to girls really limits
there movement at school. Boys wear trousers and fly around. Girls are careful not to
show their legs and show their body parts. The myth of beauty, women are somehow
imprisoned in their bodies and thus are under control. The culture of fitness, women
aspiring to a fit and slim body. This leads to victimization, eating disorder, trauma, all
these elements lead to sexual abuse.
 Teacher, Media plays an important role in that especially in the west. The culture of
fitness is oppressive in the west. Again, this idea of being imprisoned in your body is
oppressive. Social expectations, men and women should look a certain way society
approves of. Beauty standards are limiting for women.
 Oppression, fact that the male provides for his family and brings income and the
devalue (?) of female tasks and house chores sets inequality within home. In the article
it says if you are financially independent there are less chances for you to be violent.
In egalitarian relationships and when women have more income abuse is more likely
to take place. Money equals power. When women have a source of income they
represent a threat to men as if they start competing with them. The privatization of
the family business means what happens here, stays here. Teacher speaks It is okay if
a women does not want to work outside and be independent but it has to be her choice
not something imposed on her ( in reality we know that women who stay at home are
not doing it because it’s their choice but because they are either forced to by their
male counter parts or do not possess qualifications for a certain job, maybe not
educated) We need to educate society that men and women are free to choice what
they want to be outside the traditional gender roles. It’s fine to be a house wife if it is
 your choice. If a couple wants to switch gender roles that’s fine too. We value the job
of men because it’s paid and for women, they work full time in the house but it’s
unpaid and not valued. Violence can be between women. A woman being so violent to
another woman because she has a better position, power.
 Wage gap, the case of Dutch women, work two unpaid months per year. Women are
still suffering from such financial penalties merely because of their gender.
Discrimination is not only related to morocco; other countries suffer from gender
discrimination as well. Women who hold positions in the so called traditionally male
fields are assertive and competitive which makes them target for sexual harassment.
They challenge their male coworkers’ masculinity as they are considered to step out of
their feminine roles. Sexual harassment, sex acts are used to define masculinity and
femininity. Traditionally speaking men are considered dominant whereas women are
thought to be submissive. Such perceptions of sex result in violence as it perpetuates
gender roles. Violence is related to pornography as well. It presents women as
subjected to men’s violence. Most women regard violence as related to masculinity
and wrong. To resist violence, women should use violence to protect themselves.
Naoufel contributes, Marshal arts can help women to learn how to defend themselves.
Their philosophy is that sex and size does not matter. There are some websites and
blogs that teach women how to defend themselves. The abuser gains power over the
victim when elements such as, intimidation, coercion, threats, isolation, emotional and
economic abuse coincides with physical abuse. The institutions responsible for
gender based violence are pornography, privacy, women’s unemployment, the myth
of beauty, girls’ invisibility at school.

Abdssamad Bazza’s presentation on Domestic Violence.

 Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering to women. There are two types of violence, physical and
symbolic.
 Symbolic violence, Financial: it is the form of abuse in which one intimate partner has the
ultimate control over the other partner’s economic resources which diminishes the victim’s
capacity to support herself and forces her to be dependent on the perpetrator financially.
 The issue of sexual harassment, mainly in the street has become more and more familiar.
Women have to deal with remarks and improper conduct which constitutes a violation on
their sexual, physical and moral integrity, but this sometimes can transcend to sexual
attacks such as rape. This raises another issue which is the insecurity of women in public
spaces and being dominated solely by men. There are situations where women can’t walk
quietly without being bothered.
 Legal violence, women not having the right to vote, didn’t have the power to ask for divorce.
 Physical violence, Domestic violence: is a form of abuse by one person against another.
 Rape, today rape in Morocco is no longer that farfetched phenomenon that we seldom hear
about or even dare pronounce. Rape has now reached its most dreadful manifestations in
the kingdom.
 Law against violence acts, Morocco’s parliament ratified a law to combat violence against
women after months of debate and discussion between political parties and civil society in a
move aimed at containing violence against women, a phenomenon that is wide spreading
among Moroccan society.