Sir, – Misogyny (hatred of women) is the basis of our patriarchal society.
Violence is used by men to control and intimidate women and always will be unless we act as a society to fight it. Una Mullally's article (Weekend, March 6th) on the horrific experience of Sarah Grace, a young woman attacked in her own bed in Dublin was very moving as it belies the accusations thrown at women in rape trials that they shouldn't have been out after dark, or wearing a short skirt etc.
Patriarchal legal systems attack victims brave enough to go to court where more money is invested in rehabilitating perpetrators than in providing support services to victims. Long ignored in our global male-dominated society, we can no longer pretend that violence against women doesn’t happen or even see it as “normal”.
Kitty Holland’s recent article on the subject (News, March 13th) tells us that even the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality had to admit that the topic was “propelled” onto its agenda by female citizens, writing to ask that violence against women be addressed.
But please let’s stop using abbreviations such as GBV (gender-based violence) which only serve to obscure the violence and to relegate it to another vague “issue”. Let’s name and shame, as the UN does, and tackle misogyny and sexism head on. – Yours, etc,
MOIRA DEVERY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.