CAIRO: Cultural misconceptions create an environment that perpetuates violence against women and is an obstacle to eradicating it, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Yakin Erturk said Thursday. Erturk said that because violence against women often occurs in a private setting, attempts to tackle it as a human rights violation are often perceived as an attack on the culture and religion of the area. However, Erturk, who is a Turkish Muslim, believes that these cultural misconceptions are a result of patriarchy and gain credence because they are not challenged. Eradicating these practices, she said, would not blemish culture or religion in any way. "We need to have a public discourse where we can challenge these cultural conventions and build consensus around them, she told Daily News Egypt. "Women have challenged certain things and nothing happened to our culture. We got rid of something that was bad, that was being used in the name of our culture. The first step towards confronting violence against women is to bring both men and women on board. "I want to convince men that this [violence against women] is a compromise on their humanity, it doesn't make them more of a man. This kind of violence in one sphere will always spiral into another sphere, [thus] affecting everybody, Erturk continued. She drew a correlation between unwillingness to address violence against women and a general lack of human rights in certain countries. "We need to de-mystify these myths, she said. Erturk gave a speech Thursday on the state of human rights in today's world - with a focus on the rights of women - at the American University in Cairo. Cultural norms, she said, were a stumbling block to protecting women from violence. She also highlighted the quandary of intervening in what is perceived to be a private sphere beyond the reach of the state. Once women are subjugated to violence, even in a private setting, it becomes a human rights violation, she said. "Conflicts occurring on the basis of religion and cultural differences make it very difficult to address these issues, she said. "The culture discourse is used in denying or explaining the [lack] of women's rights because women are expected to be the carriers of their culture and so women's rights are swept aside. Speaking specifically about the Middle East and North Africa, she said, "These inequalities and the gender gap extend to all spheres of life, inside and outside of the home and are justified on the grounds of our culture, our religion. She added that efforts to address this through state legislature or other types of reform were often met with consternation. "Reactions to these reforms are emotionally charged, they are seen as an attack on culture, on Islam, Ertuk said. "The politics of change are very contentious. It is also viewed as collaborating with the enemy in a way, she added, which made it far more difficult to change. Speaking to Daily News Egypt, Ertuk was adamant that these cultural impediments in no way arose out of a definitive culture nor Islam, but rather were the result of the patriarchal dominance over the public sphere, a situation common to the whole world. This patriarchal setting is the reason behind the delay in addressing violence against women appropriately and as a human rights issue, she said. "It took the international community a long time to accept that violence against women is a human rights violation and is unacceptable. Ertuk's position as Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women was only created in 1994. "It is a latecomer to the UN agenda, she added, "the international community by 1979 was not yet ready to recognize that this was a public issue [therefore necessitated state intervention and legislature]. It was only through "an international movement which transformed the paradigm of human rights, which was initially patriarchal and only concerned the public sphere. Women demonstrated through years of struggle that the violation of women's rights is unrecognized. And the state is now seen as responsible for the protection of women if [even if they] are violated by a private actor.
