He used to use his hand to communicate with his wife. But that
was five years ago before counsel from anti-domestic violence
community volunteers and a training stint helped him save his
marriage.
Such has been Wang Bin's transformation that now he leads a
13-man volunteer group in the Kaiyang community of Beijing to
eradicate domestic violence.
"I want to use my experience both as a perpetrator of and
fighter against domestic violence to appeal to those gearing up for
the White Ribbon Campaign (WRC)," Wang said Sunday.
Wang and 200 other residents, all wearing white ribbons as a
symbol of personal pledge never to perpetrate, condone or remain
silent on violence against women, gathered at Kaiyang Sunday to
begin a series of programs.
The programs will continue till November 25, the international
day for Eradication of Violence Against Women.
The WRC is an international program calling men to end domestic
violence. People in China responded to the WRC call at the
beginning of this decade.
The campaign in the country has prompted an increasing number of
victims to stand up against domestic violence and call for gender
equality, Wang said. An All-China Women's Federation survey shows
violence has been reported from 35 percent of the 270 million
families in China, with most of the victims being women.
The central government has passed general legislation and
actively cooperates with NGOs to prevent domestic violence, said
Chen Benjian, chief of Network for Combating Domestic Violence
under China Law Society.
"The revised Marriage Law and the Law on the Protection of
Rights and Interests of Women both set a general legislative base
for anti-family violence," Chen said. Nineteen provinces have
specific regulations on the subject.
NGOs have played an important role in setting up a network of
shelters across the country. One such example is Xuzhou's pilot
program, which is funded jointly by the Ministry of Civil Affairs,
China Gender Facility and the UN Theme Group on Gender (UNTGG),
Chen said.
Educating woman victims to break their silence is as important
as asking men to stop the violence, said Li Mingshun, an expert
with Gender and Law Researching Center of the Social Academic
Institution.
(China Daily November 19, 2007)