Rima Flihan

Women have never had equal status with men, neither as human beings nor as citizens, in our ailing East with distorted values and defective masculinity linking a man's social status to his control over women and his ability to control their actions and restrict their freedom, which is practically known as domestic violence.

domestic violence is defined as the desire to control, or by the abuser's control against the victim, it is not only linked to the violence of the husband against the wife but extends to violence against children and the elderly and generally vulnerable groups in society and in our Arab societies women and children are the most vulnerable, and they are the most exposed to violence.

This violence includes verbal, physical, emotional, social, sexual, economic and even legal violence, as a result of which many crimes are committed, including honour crimes committed by male family members against women without any deterrent

The crime of "lack of honour" may be committed for the most insignificant reasons, and is linked to that macho man's fear that his manhood and ability to control the women of the family and the tribe may be shaken before relatives and tribal society, which leads our societies to this day, even though they try to appear otherwise, and certainly under the protection of laws that reduce the penalty for the murderer and kill the victim .

This is not only about the mitigating laws against the murderer under the pretext of honour, but also that most of the laws of our east are devoid of laws that hold accountable and regulate cases of domestic violence. And the absence of social institutions to protect the victims and accompany children exposed to violence, as in the countries of the civilized world.

In our East Minors are married, women's rights are violated, and raped women are forced to marry those who raped them. In this East, a man has the right to beat, divorce, insult, blackmail and take away custody. He is also entitled to marry and divorce the women he considers under his guardianship, with a dreadful legal and social blessing

All of this is fundamentally linked to the value and dignity of the individual in our countries, to the extent to which our sense of self as individuals grows more than our belief in the advice of the community whatever it is, its governance, its wishes, and its social constraints, whether it be a family, a sect, a tribe or an environment.

These groups do not realize that societies do not grow entirely if their members do not grow and achieve a high sense of their value as individuals, their dignity as human beings, and the freedom of their life choices,

But how can this be achieved in the absence of the value of freedom in our Arab countries because of the political, religious and cultural tyranny regimes that govern most of these countries and prevent their development and the growth of individuals and restrict their personal freedoms by unfair laws? With the presence of security or social repression bodies, once represented by the intelligence agent, once by the ruling party officials, and once by the judge, armed with ancient oppressive laws that do not conform to the International Bill of Human Rights, once by the cleric who entrenches fear and resignation to societies, and once by local figures who have power and influence in those societies.

All of these are united by the oppression of women, the preservation of the patriarchal societies and the power of the community over the individual, They constitute an impediment to personal freedoms and public freedoms, and this leads to the fact that all popular uprisings in the Arab world have had to prioritize these social freedoms in these countries.

Because freedom is indivisible and those who seek the freedom of their homelands and political freedoms without paying attention to personal, social and individual freedoms cannot be truly aware of their uprising against injustice.

Either you are against injustice all injustice in general and with freedom all freedom in general with full awareness, or you would be a leech on those uprisings sucking their blood, sickening and maybe killing them unconsciously.

There is no longer any space in this era and this world to accommodate all those crimes against Arab women in the Arab world, once under the pretext of honor, once because of domestic violence, once because of social and legal injustice, and once because of underdevelopment and outdated social customs

This means that each of these acts must be met with media pressure and social media campaigns, as well as legal and civil society action, if we want our societies to truly rise and develop to a stage where all their citizens feel protected and sense their value as individuals, not crushed by oppression, law, politicization of religion and society, and this does not contradict the process of demanding political freedoms but supports it.

The youth migration from these countries to escape war, oppression and poverty, lack of opportunities and underdevelopment of societies, and their intolerance to differences, is the best proof of the need to move these societies toward a more civilized, free, and democratic state where the law prevails and the dignity of the citizens is preserved and protected, Otherwise, do not blame all these young men and women who leave this East, this East is killing us!