Table Of Content‘Powerful and absorbing, Scars Across Humanity painstakingly documents the
gross injustices facing women around the world. Some of the stories made
headlines, many passed unnoticed and too many occurred much closer to home
than we might realize. Elaine has done us a great service in not only describing
what is happening, but also seeking to understand why it happens – and what
needs to be done to tackle this worldwide problem. This is not an easy book to
read, but it is a necessary book. I hope the stories she shares and facts she brings
before us will encourage us all to pray – and to join in the work of bringing
healing and an end to gender-based violence.’
Jackie Harris, Editor, Woman Alive
‘This is a courageous and a terrifying book. We all know that acts of violence
against women are a problem, but never have we realized the scale of the
problem is so huge. Where others would be cautious to speak out for fear of
offending the sensibilities of other cultures, Elaine Storkey is clear and fearless,
inspired by true compassion. Scrupulously researched and documented,
illustrated with both statistics and personal stories, this is a book that changes
perceptions and could play a substantive role in achieving change.’
Margaret Hebblethwaite
‘Elaine Storkey’s book is well researched and deeply moving. She captures most
vividly for her readers the way in which patriarchy, religious and cultural
traditions, complications in the law, lack of education (not always) and isolation
can combine and lead to women being abused, being permanently disfigured or
their untimely death. This violation of the human rights of girls and women is
indeed a “deep scar” across humanity. The collusion that perpetuates the
deepening of this scar will only cease when there is true respect given to girls
and women in societies throughout our world. Reading this book can be the first
step to breaking that collusion.’
The Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of
Commons
‘This is a timely book, emerging as the world awakes, too slowly, to the problem
of violence against women and girls. Elaine Storkey examines this issue through
her characteristic twin lenses of clarity of thought and kindness of heart,
carefully building up a mosaic of facts, figures and testimonies of those who
have suffered in many different settings. I challenge anyone to read this book
and emerge unchanged.’
Baroness Maeve Sherlock, House of Lords
Elaine Storkey is a philosopher, sociologist and theologian who has held
university posts at King’s College, London; Stirling; Oxford; Calvin College,
USA; and the Open University. A Fellow of Aberystwyth University, former
Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and high-table
member of Newnham College, Cambridge, she has also lectured in Africa, Asia
and Haiti. Her presidency of Tearfund, the aid and development agency, spanned
17 years. A broadcaster and author, she has been a passionate advocate for
justice and gender issues for 30 years, implementing many changes for women
through 28 years on the General Synod of the Church of England.
In grateful memory of my father, James Thomas Lively
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: naming the problem
1 A global pandemic
2 Violence begins before birth: selective abortion and infanticide
3 Cut for purity: female genital mutilation
4 Early and enforced marriage: child abuse by another name
5 Whose ‘honour’? Killings and femicide as reprisals for shame
6 Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide: violence in the home
7 Money, sex and violence: trafficking and prostitution
8 Rape
9 War and sexual violence
10 Why gender-based violence? It’s in our genes: exploring our evolutionary
heritage
11 Why gender-based violence? Power and patriarchy
12 Religion and women
13 Christianity and gender: a fuller picture
Notes
Select bibliography
Search items
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to all those women who have let me into their lives and shared their
stories with me. I want to thank Tearfund for planning and arranging my trips
during my 17 years as President, and for all those colleagues who travelled with
me. My admiration for the international partners and their relentless work for the
alleviation of poverty and injustice has never abated. I shall always be in the
debt of those who hosted my visits, negotiated with officials, and kept me safe
when stopped by armed militia at checkpoints. Thank you to Peter Grant and
Mandy Marshall of Restored, who share the deep concerns of this book, and
work hard themselves to end violence against women. Natalie Collins of Spark
has been a wonderful encouragement, and her energy spurs me on. Christina
Rees, Kate Coleman and Cham Kaur Mann have been supportive of the project
from the beginning. I have appreciated Rose Hudson-Wilkin’s involvement and I
cannot overestimate the encouragement of Carolyn Armitage, who read the
uncompleted manuscript and gave invaluable advice.
The tireless work of Heal Africa in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC), has been an enormous inspiration. The wonderful Lyn Lusi, who died far
too early, but lives on in the healed lives of others, showed me the level of
commitment needed if violence against women is ever going to be eradicated.
Catherine Clark Kroeger, my friend and mentor over many years, shared the
vision of this project, and would have loved to see its outcome. I am grateful to
Mary Evans for her long friendship, and for arranging my lectures in Ethiopia,
and to Lauren Bethel and the International Christian Alliance on Prostitution for
all they have taught me. The time I have spent with the groups they partner has
been moving and enriching.
I want to thank the team at SPCK for their enthusiasm for this book, and for
all their help. Their scrupulous attention to detail has been gratifying. And, as
always, I have relied on the support, commitment, love and insights of Alan,
who has urged me on and endured my absences overseas. His partnership in
marriage these many years has been total. Finally, thank you to Zadok, Torin,
Kieran, Elijah, Iona and Ezekiel for keeping me sane.
Introduction: naming the problem
There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against
women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
On 25 November 1960 in a sugarcane field in the Dominican Republic, three
sisters were brutally assassinated. They had been tortured, strangled and clubbed
to death. They were three of the four Mirabal sisters who had spent many years
highlighting the corruption and injustice of Rafael Trujillo, the infamous
Dominican dictator, whose cruel and despotic regime brought death to more than
50,000 of his own people. The women were persistent in their defiance. Their
husbands had been incarcerated for political opposition, and they themselves had
spent much time in jail. One night, as three of them were driving home from
visiting the isolated prison which held their husbands, their jeep was intercepted
on a remote mountain road. They were dragged out of the vehicle, taken to a
lonely field, and savagely murdered. The jeep they had been travelling in was
then thrown over the cliff, with their bodies inside, so that the world would think
it an accident. But no one was fooled. There were cries of outrage from the
Dominican Catholic Church, already in conflict with Trujillo, and this was
followed by international condemnation. The despot’s rule was never to recover.
Within a year his regime would be finished, and he himself assassinated.
Nearly 40 years later, in 1999, a representative from the Dominican Republic
brought a resolution to the General Assembly of the United Nations that 25
November should be known as the International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women. This day had long been remembered in Latin America
and now it was the United Nations’ turn. The resolution was adopted. Not only
would the bravery of the Mirabal sisters never be forgotten, but the brutality
meted out to them would stand as a marker for all violence inflicted on women,
along with the call for its elimination. What had begun as a protest by four
courageous Catholic women against a vicious tyrant now became a justice call
for women across the globe who suffered at the hands of tyrants, whether that
tyranny was political, military, economic, structural or domestic.
Yet there is a paradox here, of course. The Mirabal sisters were well-
Yet there is a paradox here, of course. The Mirabal sisters were well-
connected, highly educated, fluent, popular and influential. They had once
moved in elitist circles, were articulate as women in the public sphere. The
injustice their family received was visible and recognized; their murder was
open to scrutiny and its outcome had far-reaching consequences. Yet few of the
women with whom they now share this day will also share these characteristics.
Far more often these women will be unidentified, silent, out of public view,
hidden behind a veneer of normality, or suffering in isolation. Their deaths will
not make the headlines; their names may never be known. But they are ever
present, and exist in their millions. As the statistics calmly tell us, acts of
violence to women aged between 15 and 44 across the globe produce more
deaths, disability and mutilation than cancer, malaria and traffic accidents
combined.
The truth is that violence on such a scale could not exist were it not structured
in some way into the very fabric of societies and cultures themselves. It could
not continue if it were not somehow supported by deep assumptions about the
value of women, or some justification of the use of power. In many cultures such
assumptions are reiterated every day in the absence of legal protection for
women, or indifference towards issues of human rights. Even in advanced
democratic societies, where women play a significant part in public life, the level
of domestic violence and sexual abuse suggests that these assumptions remain
powerful and effective, even though they are concealed behind closed doors.
So what is it about human societies that tolerates the kind of animosity and
violence towards women which is greater than that found in animal
communities? What is it about some human cultures and tradition which makes
it normal for women to undergo rape, beatings, cutting, molestation, infanticide,
trafficking, bride burning, child prostitution and sexual slavery? It seems
ambitious to hope that we can find an answer to these questions. But if violence
to women is ever to be eliminated, we need to know what it is that we are up
against.
My wish is that this book will be a contribution to that search. It has been
eight years in the writing, begun after a trip to Africa brought me in contact with
women whose sufferings from war were heart-wrenching. My conviction has
grown that the power we are up against is destructive. I am just daring to hope
that this effort might add its own weight to changing the structures and
