“We must recognize the sexual politics of murder,” wrote femicide scholar Diana Russell in 1976. The concept of gender-based killing is old, but the more recent term femicide clarifies the sexist oppression behind violence against women and allows attention to be draw to the hate crimes, explained Dr. Arghavan Almony in early February.
Dr. Almony, a CA parent, full-time retina surgeon, and an Iranian American women’s rights activist, was talking in front of a room full of Cary Academy students at a Lunch and Learn about femicides in Türkiye, organized by Milena Chiavegatto and Grace Housman, leaders of the Arab American Affinity Group. Türkiye faced a wave of femicides in 2024, sparking protests against the conservative, Islamic-oriented government that has abolished many laws protecting women’s rights, including reneging on the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty opposing violence against women, in 2021.
However, the news of the femicides was paid little attention by the mainstream news cycle. When Dr. Almony asked who knew the term femicide at the Lunch and Learn, about half of the room raised their hand. “Domestic violence is not really sensational,” explained Dr. Almony. News is a business that spotlights what readers will want to click on—and violence against women is nothing new. In an age of digital inundation, tuning in to grassroots activism is essential to gaining awareness of issues that might not seem close to home.
To address this, Dr. Almony began her talk by acknowledging that it’s easy to distance ourselves from something as foreign sounding as “Turkish femicides,” but it’s important to recognize that the US is far from gender equal. Femicides happen across the globe, from Argentina to India to South Africa to the US. Türkiye is just one example of the impact of the “pandemic” of femicide, as Dr. Almony put it.
To illustrate the pervasiveness of domestic violence, Dr. Almony used data—the jarring, but necessary, facts. “You have to have data to bring attention to what’s going on,” she said. Almony knows the importance of data firsthand, as she worked with a team of journalists and doctors to create a medical report on the 2022 Iranian Women, Life, and Freedom movement for the United Nations. Pointing to the audience, Almony stated that one in three women will experience some sort of domestic or sexual violence. A stunned shock fell over the room. Girls looked at their neighbors, letting the weight of the ratio sink in. It might be easy to dismiss this statistic as unapplicable to Cary Academy’s generally privileged, highly educated community. Yet, Dr. Almony warned, “Women who have a higher socioeconomic status have more to lose if people know about it. There’s more shame, there’s sometimes more financial instability. Sometimes they are better at hiding it.” In fact, the true global rate of domestic and sexual violence is likely higher than 33% due to underreporting.
Largescale, systemic issues like domestic violence can feel overwhelming, especially for young people. Some Cary Academy students will become lawyers, politicians, and non-profit workers, but it’s important for everyone to remember that everyday actions and utilizing your resources make an impact. For Dr. Almony, activism is a spectrum. Sometimes, her activism is through educational talks and supporting local organizations like Dress for Success, but often it looks like taking time to listen to female patients who are dismissed in a broken medical system and raising her kids to understand the equality of men and women. Her reminder: “You’re not changing the world by doing these things, but you are helping one person at a time.”
Source:
Diana Russell, Nicole Van de Ven. Crimes Against Women: Proceedings of the International Tribunal. Les Femmes, 1976, http://www.dianarussell.com/f/Crimes_Against_Women_Tribunal.pdf.