Thursday, May 21, 2009

The woman's role in abuse part 2

I read recently that around 60% of people involved in the human trafficking industry are women. By this I don't mean the victims, I mean the culprits.

Oddly this seems to fit with what we are seeing in Kuwait. Many of the people involved in maid recruitment agencies are women. Most of the pimps who work in plain sight in Kuwait City are women. Many of those who abuse maids in the home are again women. Is it mere coincidence that Kuwait seems to agree with international figures?

See for me, as a male, it's hard to understand why a woman, who has probably already experienced gender inequality throughout her life (regardless of nationality) would then turn around and attack her fellow women. Yet this is what seems to be happening. If anybody has any clue as to why this might be, please do share your views.

So far I am running on what I believe to be partly true. Many of these 'pimps' and 'abusers' are just the victims of pimping and abuse, promoted to a higher level. Several international studies show that in the human trafficking industry many of the women in charge are those who were victims of trafficking themselves, risen through the ranks. For some reason going through a horrible situation seems to make people harder, not softer.

And when I think about it, I guess it is the same for us men. We drag each other down in spite of the fact that we should be more understanding because of our own horrible experiences. For some reason with us humans, man or woman, we tend to repeat our own histories. Even with something like parenting we can sometimes carry on the mistakes of our own parents.

So how are we to handle our own bad experiences in a way that does not cause them to multiply in the lives of others around us?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You actually answered your own question on why do women abuse other women, especially if they themselves are abused.

Due to the fact that women are abused, or more abused than men whichever part of the world they are in, there will always have this tendency to abuse other women.

Repression really is a cycle that revolves from the oppressor to the oppressed who, in turn, transfer this burden unto other weaker ones.

If a woman is abused (verbally, emotionally) by her husband or others, she is more likely to transfer this repression on others (her children, employees at work, or employees at home - housemaids).

Then why not break the cycle? It's not easy to be quite frank. And the more successful way to go about attaining your rights (anyone's rights) is by fighting for them and voicing out your concerns.

Men have a higher tendency to fight, while women do not - given their fragile and delicate nature. So when repression occurs, instead of fighting it, they transfer this abuse towards others who are weaker.

Husband mistreats wife, wife mistreats maid, maid mistreats child, child mistreats younger sibling.

It's a cycle.