The Importance of Believing Survivors of GBV

Written by Aditi Malhotra

As someone who spent the first 18 years of their life in a culture dominated by males that programmed everyone with the strict software of patriarchy and gender specificity, I grew up with ideals that dictated clear roles and rules under which the dichotomies of gender had to function. I also had the naïve view of gender-based violence to be the distinct act of hitting a woman, because, well, she’s a woman. Needless to say, eventually experiencing the things every woman does first hand permanently disillusioned me of those notions.

Gender-based violence is defined to be the types of abuse that women, girls, trans and non-binary people are most likely to face. It can take physical and emotional forms, such as - name-calling, hitting, pushing, blocking, stalking/criminal harassment, rape, sexual assault, control, and manipulation.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there - the experience of sexual or gender-based violence becomes a catalyst in the manifestation of various psychopathological effects such as PTSD, anxiety disorder, depression, substance abuse, etc. in the victims. Apart from the direct consequences that mentally encumber survivors of gender-based violence, the deep-rooted stereotypes surrounding the societal taboo of gender-based violence only reinforce their trauma. The blind acceptance of these stigmas in society proportionately encourages the increase of mental-illnesses in survivors of sexual violence, adding up to the psychic burden of trauma.

Very recently, a course I’m studying required me to watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘The Danger of a Single Story;’ her talk was deeply enigmatic and moving in its own right but a certain thing she said that was significant was “show a people as one thing and only one thing and that is what they become.” Adichie shined a spotlight on what happens to an endless number of groups of people burdened by the weight of myths mindlessly accepted by the community. The same stigma doubles up as a mechanism of social control, reaffirming the gender-power paradigm, while exacerbating the already present mental and physical afflictions in survivors of gender-based violence.

Gender- based violence as a ubiquitous phenomenon is rooted in the structural gender-based inequalities which simultaneously construct the foundation of discrimination against survivors by isolation, taunting and even disbelief at their claims and counter-questioning. Adichie, in a talk about male entitlement towards female bodies emphasizes how the language surrounding gender in general cements the place gender-based inequalities have in our world, thus leading to instances where victims of sexual or gender-based violence are blamed for the crimes inflicted upon them.

It is this stigmatization that riddles victims of gender-based violence and drags them down further; when a victim of gender-based violence comes forward with their story, the instinctive reaction of the people around them is to question their motives, credibility and worth, adding yet another layer of pre-existing trauma. In order to stop the prevailing epidemic of sexual and gender-based violence, the first and simplest step is to believe the victims.

In a study done about the effects of an empowerment program for survivors of sexual violence, it was found that after completing the program, participants had significantly more empowered views in all three domains, particularly regarding domestic violence, how families should treat men and women, and women’s economic rights. Participants in their home communities reported taking a more active role in community affairs and speaking out against the mistreatment of women. This proves the significance of engaging in the simple act of trusting a victim who has the courage of stepping forward and accepting their vulnerability rather than mechanically and automatically disparaging them.

One of the markedly memorable books I have read is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – a renowned book claimed to unravel love and friendship like no other. While the book pulled on my heartstrings in every possible way, a particular quote that left a staggering effect was “learn this now and learn it well, like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.” It’s a saying that comes back to me with every other story of a victim of such violence being examined rather than the offender I come across, and the fixture of our individual moral compasses and ideals, to interrogate the culprit is long overdue.