The woman in circles of violence, author: Hassan Ibrahim Ahmed

The woman is a permanent victim of violence in all previous human civilizations, and even in the current ones, especially in societies that have not completed the severance from barbarism, foremost among them Arab and Islamic societies. If oppression is the distinguishing mark of the woman's situation in these societies, it is rare that this oppression does not take on a violent character or does not stem from a root of violence in the form of interconnected and fused circles, forming a nearly solid mass surrounding the woman from all sides to the extent that she appears to be at the core of this mass. And although the author discusses various circles of physical violence, sexual violence, social violence, and even self-violence, which women often practice against themselves as a masochistic reaction, he does not see them as separate circles; rather, they are intertwined and centrally connected, collectively reflecting a culture of violence that is persistent in a society governed by a rational faith that contradicts the values of equality and freedom. If violence against women is primarily of a cultural nature and born from the mental infrastructure of Arab and Islamic societies as a whole, it must manifest on all social, economic, and political levels in the form of strict exclusion circles for women from all fields of the public sphere, and even the private, establishing her in a fixed and multi-shaped inferiority that only increases the circles' closure around her. What distinguishes Hassan Ibrahim Ahmed's work is his bringing forth evidence from real life, as well as cultural, all of which testify to the deep-rooted forms of violence practiced against women at all levels of our societies. He supports his research with testimonies from women he personally encountered who were subjected to various forms of violence. Number of pages: 432