Doris Chong of Rainlily in Hong Kong and Sumitra Visvanathan of Malaysia’s Women’s Aid Organisation discuss the importance of standing up and speaking out about domestic and sexual abuse and how achieving gender equality is essential to ending violence against women
Globally, one in three women are subjected to physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. But it’s not just women who are affected; this is not just a women’s issue.
“In Malaysia, one in ten women currently are or have been in domestic violence situations. Why is this such an important issue? It holds a woman back, puts barriers in her way, destroys her self-confidence and sense of self, and takes away her fundamental rights to equality and to live a life that she chooses,” says Sumitra Visvanathan, executive director of Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) in Malaysia, which has been providing support to women and children who experience abuse since it was founded in 1982.
“Where you have a community where one in ten women are living in an unsafe home, what does that say about the safety of your society as a whole?” she continues. “It’s not a women’s issue; it’s an everyone issue. And when you end violence against women, you create better communities and everyone benefits—men, women and children. If there’s one social issue that we as human beings can address, it should be this.”
Doris Chong is the recently appointed executive director of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women (ACSVAW) in Hong Kong, which was founded in 1997 and works to raise awareness of sexual violence, and Rainlily, its sexual violence crisis centre, which was established in 2000.
“One in seven women have encountered sexual violence in Hong Kong,” says Chong, many of whom do not speak out about their experiences for many years, sometimes decades, which can have a significant impact on their mental health. The number of women reporting sexual abuse seems to be on the rise in Hong Kong. However, this is something that can be viewed positively, as it means more people are willing to talk about what’s happened to them.
Having worked in women’s organisations for more than 20 years, where her main concern has been women facing domestic as well as sexual violence, Chong is pleased to see that in recent years, women are more open to sharing their experiences publicly. “It can really help others to improve their situation or the system. It also shows the change in society, how society is accepting and supporting them in our region,” says Chong.
Malaysia has seen similar developments. In the nine years that Visvanathan has worked as WAO’s executive director, she says that the level of public awareness of the issue has increased. However, “the fundamental cultural and societal attitudes that promote violence against women have not changed.”
In November 2021, WAO carried out a survey on public attitudes towards violence against women in Malaysia. Among the worrying findings were endorsement of certain stereotypical ideas: 80 per cent of people surveyed said that rape happens because men cannot control their sexual desires; more than half of respondents said rape happens because of the way a woman is dressed; and 30 per cent said that if a woman has consumed alcohol and is raped, it is her fault.
"It’s not a women’s issue; it’s an everyone issue. When you end violence against women, you create better communities and everyone benefits—men, women and children. If there’s one social issue that we as human beings can address, it should be this.”
“It was pretty shocking for us. Violence against women occurs because there is fundamental gender inequality in society; women are fundamentally seen as less equal than men,” says Visvanathan. While WAO has been instrumental in working with the government to improve laws and regulations, including the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act in 2022, the Domestic Violence Act 1994, and improvements to the penal code including a law making stalking a crime which came into force in 2023, she says, “These are implemented by people, and people have certain attitudes, and those attitudes haven’t changed and they need to.”
Developments have taken place in Hong Kong too, though legal reform can be harder to achieve, as organisations are not working directly with government as they do in Malaysia. “There is some progress,” admits Chong, referring to a new anti-voyeurism law in 2021. But as with Malaysia, implementation needs improvement, as new laws may be in place but frontliners are often not aware of them.
How do we change this? Awareness pays a large part. “Government needs to be aware, and implementers and frontliners, but then at a community level people need to accept or express that violence against women is wrong and it’s never her fault. There’s no excuse for abuse; there are only triggers,” says Visvanathan.
It’s particularly challenging in Hong Kong, as recent political developments have seen a number of women’s organisations close down, Chong says, adding that there is a need for constant consideration around what conversations can be had in public.
But there is nevertheless cause for optimism. “In Hong Kong, we have had some cases where one abuser has many victims and have observed that when one victim is willing to come out to report the case or speak out in the media, other girls will follow,” says Chong. “Maybe it’s a new generational change in Hong Kong, but there’s empowerment. Girls have the confidence to feel it’s not their fault, and they are more willing to come out and appeal to others to follow them.”
“Like Doris, I’m inspired by younger women and also teen girls [who] I feel are becoming more and more networked with each other and use social media in positive ways, and have that sense of solidarity. It’s really about rallying together the people who are allies,” says Visvanathan.
We all have a role to play in making progress around the issue. “Don’t just be a bystander, be an upstander,” says Visvanathan. “If you see or you think that someone is in a situation of domestic violence, or has faced domestic violence, educate yourself, become aware, give the support, don’t judge and help refer them to the services they need or the organisations that can support them.”
Visvanathan continues: “The fundamental learning is: we need to have tough conversations and we must challenge each other to have those conversations because otherwise violence against women will remain a hidden issue, will remain within the home, within the heart of the survivor, and we must confront these issues, along with standing up for women’s rights.
“Women have the right to equality and when communities and countries across Asia commit to equality for women, everything improves—family life improves, personal lives improve, the economy will improve. It’s a win-win.”