DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: WHY WOMEN MUST SPEAK OUT
Lots of women are been abused at home daily by their husbands,but they are not speaking out. Despite the fact that statistics validate this claim that many women were abused or kill everyday around the world,most Women still prefer to suffer in silence.Why they are not speaking out is a subject of another write up which I Titled: Domestic Violence: Why women are not talking.
Women ages 18 to 34 are said to be at greatest risk of becoming victims of domestic violence.
More than 4 million women experience physical assault and rape by their partners.
In 2 out of 3 female homicide cases, females are killed by a family member or intimate partner.
National coalition against domestic Violence in United States stated that:
Every 9 seconds in the US, a woman is assaulted or beaten.
On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of [some form of] physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime.
If the statistics can be this high in the US,what do you think is happening in developing countries,but yet you rarely see women speaking out.
Ladies,let me tell you reasons you must speak out when your husband is abusing you.
IT MAY STOP IF YOU SPEAK OUT
Speaking out may stop the abuse and put an end to it forever as most Men that beats their wife never want it to be reported to anybody that is why they do threaten that their women must not speak out. So speak out
HELP MAY COME YOUR WAY: Speaking out may bring professional help your way and that of your husband,don’t keep quiet,speak out.
IT WILL CONTINUE IF YOU KEEP QUIET
Domestic violence has a higher rate of repeat victimisation than any other crime (UK Home Office, July 2002),If you keep quiet it will continue until you are injured physically and emotionally or even die.
BECAUSE OF YOUR HEALTH
Your health is at stake if you keep quiet. Many men do beat their wives into coma.A lady once told me how she fractured her hands as she was beaten by her husband. A lot of men do continue with the abuse even when their wives are pregnant. See these:
30% of domestic violence either starts or will intensify during pregnancy (Department of Health report, October 2004)
Foetal morbidity from violence is more prevalent than gestational diabetes or pre-eclampsia (Friend, 1998)
Don’t keep your mouth shut,speak out.
IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE: If you keep quiet your death in that marriage will speak out,too bad it will be too late then. Don’t wait for corpse to do the announcement,speak out now.
IT MAY SAVE YOUR MARRIAGE: Speaking out may save your marriage,keeping quiet may destroy it,contrary to your thought that keeping quiet may save your marriage,Don’t use your life to defend your marriage,your life is more valuable than your marriage. Speak out.
IT IS FOOLISH TO KEEP QUIET: It will be too foolish to keep quiet when your life is been threatened In fact ,it will be one of the most foolish thing you will do to keep quiet,the man may kill you ;escape the law and marry another wife who will enjoy what you’ve suffered for.Don’t be foolish,speak out.
FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOUR CHILDREN
The health of your Children is at stake if you keep quiet in an abusive marriage,it was reported that 20% of children in the UK have been exposed to domestic abuse (Radford et al. NSPCC, 2011)
In 90% of domestic violence incidents in family households, children were in the same or the next room (Hughes, 1992)
Speak out to protect your children.
IT WILL SAVE YOUR SONS:
Speaking out will save the future of your Sons,If you don’t speak out; your Sons that witness this regularly will think that is the right way to handle a woman,hence he will become a wife beater
SPEAKING OUT WILL SAVE THE FUTURE OF YOUR DAUGHTER: If you don’t speak out and allow your Daughter to witness this show of shame regularly,sees you in tears often sees her trusted father behaving like tiger,she may think all Men are like that and grow up to hate Men,thereby hurting her family life.
IT IS THE WISEST THING TO DO: Speaking out is the wisest thing you can do. Your life is too precious to lose it to a riffraff,wisdom says speak to the right people,your counsellor,trusted friends,police,Violence against women NGOs,your pastor,your mentor,your family etc. by all means speak out,don’t keep quiet until the man send you to an untimely grave.
