Various forms of violence against women include physical and verbal violence, including: beatings, torture, threats, mental disorders, rape, insults, trafficking in women, hateful writings, slanderous writings and so on. This can happen because of the assumption that women are physically and mentally weak, taking care of children, cooking in the kitchen, serving husbands, helping to increase family income, low levels of education, vulnerable to self-exploitation with beauty and charm to earn income. So that acts of violence against women do not easily occur, women should have sufficient ethics and intellectuality so that they are able to face all kinds of problems that will arise in life, both at the family and community levels.
Ethics is a person’s ability to apply and carry out the rules or norms that apply in society that are agreed upon to bring and guide a person to have a personality with a strong character and become provisions in navigating life. The characteristics of not being greedy, respecting others, helping each other, working together, being obedient in worship, maintaining relationships, not being arrogant, respecting time and others are what a person needs to strengthen society and the state.
While intellectuality is a person’s ability to think to solve problems they face in life. Thinking critically, being able to find solutions to a problem is part of the intellectuality that is very much needed by a person. Because women are the objects of violence, women must try their best to avoid such violence. Concrete ways that can be taken include increasing their ethics. Women’s ethics are the possession of ethics, morals, and norms in accordance with the teachings of their religion and the ethical values that apply in society, containing how a woman can protect her private parts, her relationships, her interactions, her behavior from greedy traits, arrogance, her lifestyle.
If the above things can be part of a woman’s life, being able to control herself, then she will be safe from acts of violence against women. Example: violence against women that occurs within the family, because women push themselves too hard to live a luxurious or hedonistic lifestyle while the family income is insufficient, it causes family conflict between husband and wife. Because women are physically weak and have low knowledge, they are easily targeted by their husbands’ anger. This is what triggers violence against women which actually starts from themselves who have a luxurious or hedonistic lifestyle. This behavior is not in accordance with ethics or is said to have low ethics which causes domestic conflict and women become the victims.
To improve women’s ethics, women should continue to learn to fortify themselves by studying more about their respective religions or beliefs according to their religious beliefs. A Muslim student at school has often used the hijab to cover her genitals so that it is not easy for the opposite sex to see the openness of women’s genitals so that it will distance the woman from acts of violence against women and wearing the hijab is part of the Islamic religion. Increasing faith and piety by actively participating in women’s religious assembly activities led by female teachers or ustadzahs that contain useful sermons.
That some women still have low or inadequate levels of education and knowledge so that they are very susceptible to temptation, by someone in order to prioritize themselves or their group unilaterally. Because in facing life’s challenges in the form of complex problems, they must use complete thinking and knowledge in order to solve various problems. A woman’s resilience is also determined by her ability to solve problems. If these women are equipped with strong thinking skills and knowledge and are given education about the importance of education among women, it will greatly determine their intellectuality in facing challenges. Intellectuality can be obtained by women from education, social interaction and communication that are a continuous process so that they do not become objects or exploitation of women by opposing parties or group interests that easily use women as targets of violence.
The increase in violence against women that is currently occurring is due to several factors. The main factors that cause it include: the lack of ethics and intellectuality of women. Women with low ethics will certainly be easier and very vulnerable to exploitation by others, either in the economic field or the lure of work. This is one of the entry points that makes it easy for women to be trapped in various problems that lead to violence against women. Therefore, women’s ethics need to be strengthened to avoid incidents of violence against women. Women’s ethics will be able to protect us from temptations or invitations that are detrimental to women.
The problems of life have been blocking us at every step, will we just give up, as strong and tough women, self-sufficiency is very necessary, one of which is intellectuality. Although women are said to be vulnerable to violence, it is only right that women also have strong intellectuality. Women with intellectuality have become a necessity so that they are not easily trapped in the games of irresponsible people. A woman with a high level of intellectuality can be assured of adequate education and is able to solve life’s problems with wisdom, logic and accountability. Thus, these women are safe from the acts of violence that threaten them. So women’s ethics and intellectuality must be possessed by a woman in order to be able to avoid the practice of violence against women.
By: Anita Pratiwi
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