Women and human rights: undoing images, (re) constructing identities

Abstract

Located in the context of studies on gender and violence, this paper interprets cases of violence against women, namely those in which the victim seeks for support services. It is part of a research being carried out in the southern region of Brazil, and debates the need to "deconstruct old images" in order to give place to "new identities" as a form of helping women to move from a victim's position towards playing the leading role of their own lives, in charge of their own choices and writing their own stories. This paper relates the urgency to revise socializing processes that will inculcate on everyday practices - of both men and women - another way of perceiving, conceiving and living their conditions as men and women in contemporaneity. It starts from the principle that it is not enough to assure rights and punish the aggressors. What has become evident in our first contacts with the research field points at the fight against gender violence being closely related to the representations that women have about domestic violence, since most of them only acknowledge physical violence, ignoring the other forms of violence. Generically, they consider gender differences as something natural and believe they occupy an inferior position in relation to men. Gender violence is a social construction that strengthens male domination and oppresses women. The challenge, thus, is to transform violence against women from a private into a public problem; that is, into an issue of human rights and gender equality.

Key-words: Gender identities; Human rights; Violence against women.