Please join us on Dec. 6 at the Salmon Arm Campus of Okanagan College for events that inclulde a candlelight vigil remembering and honouring women who have suffered from abuse and violence.
So what is violence against women?
The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life” (UN 1993).
According to the Canadian Women’s Federation, violence against women happens in all cultures and religions, in all ethnic and racial communities, at every age, and in every income group; however, some women are especially at risk.
Aboriginal women are 2.5 times more likely to be victims of violence than non-Aboriginal women. Aboriginal women (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) are six times more likely to be killed than non-Aboriginal women. www.canadianwomen.org
Last spring, I walked with our First Nations neighbours in their 10 km trek to bring awareness to the missing and murdered women and girls in our area. As we walked they remembered and prayed for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls as well as all others. As we walked, they talked and I listened with ever deepening sadness as they recounted their memories of abuse. I heard their resolve to stay silent no longer, to speak up and speak out for themselves and women of all cultures and races who have suffered. One of the toughest parts of listening and understanding is actually moving towards action. We can stay silent no longer!
I know it is difficult to grapple with the reality that so many women have suffered and been murdered for no reason except that they are women. We really don’t want to believe it, but it’s happening all too often. We also need to understand that violence against women affects the entire family.
Many women have never spoken about the violence they suffered and neither have their children. They have remained silent. The hurt and shame is often buried deeply inside a woman or child that has witnessed or suffered abuse and violence. As though somehow, the abuse and violence was their fault. I am here to say when it comes to abuse against women it is time to be silent no more. Stand up and speak up for women and families. Stop the violence against women.
Please join the events at Okanagan College on December 6 beginning at 3 p.m. with the candlelight vigil at 6:30 p.m.
Add your voice. Be heard. Stop the Violence against Women.
-Nancy Cooper is the Mayor of Salmon Arm.