Posts tagged Domestic Violence

Gender Equality Will Be Key to Achieving SDGs in Viet Nam

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Features, Gender
Pham Thi Kim Viet, a tour guide, shows visitors the map of Huế, a city in central Vietnam which was the seat of the Nguyen Dynasty emperors. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Ha Noi/Hoi An (Vietnam), 27.04.2017 (IDN): Pham Thi Kim Viet is up before the rooster heralds the crack of dawn. The rice in the cooker is beginning to boil as she tosses freshly chopped vegetables and fish in a wok. She then hurries to wake her two daughters, 12 and four years old. At 7am, dressed in laundered uniforms, she drops them at school on her trusted old scooter and proceeds to Hoi An, 30km from her home in the mountains of Dai Loc district in central Vietnam, to report for work as a freelance tour guide.

“Each day is a struggle to make ends meet. I work between 10 and 12 hours a day during high tourist season to earn US$20. During low tourist season, there is very little work and I constantly worry about paying bills and putting food on the table”, says Viet, who has been coping with mental and financial abuse from her husband. The physical violence ended, when he moved out, but he drops in anytime, sometimes to demand money.

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Australia’s `Stifling blanket of silence’

0 Comments read Gender, Indigenous

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 15.09.2003 (Panos Features UK): Elaine Shaw was repeatedly raped and sexually abused from the age of four by her father and uncles. Her partner physically assaulted and psychologically tormented her, locking her in a room for three years to separate her from the children.

Aboriginal women like Shaw – her name is changed to protect her identity – are 45 times more likely to be victims of domestic violence than other Australians. And such violence is common in Australia: research shows 23% of all Australian women have been attacked by a partner or family member.

Says New South Wales magistrate Pat O’Shane, who is Aboriginal, “Women are subjected to violence daily, if not hourly, if not by the minute.”

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