CUL214 | Understanding Legal Responses to Gender Based Violence Against Cis Women

Trigger Warning: This course will be dealing with issues of physical and sexual violence against women.

This is a stand-alone course, but it contributes to a deeper understanding of women’s fundamental constitutional and human rights – the right to equality, right to life and right to freedom.

This course is based on the research and reading of over thirty years, seeking to understand the nature of violence against women in private and public space through history. Legal and policy responses to violence against women in the USA, Britain and India have not deterred the commission of such crimes against women. In fact many of the legislations that criminalise violence against women and seek to protect women’s rights in this context have been the result of continuous activism on the part of women and women’s movements in these countries. My research over the years has been an attempt to analyse the failure of law to curb these crimes against women and even more so to analyse the failure to deliver justice to women leading to movements like the #me too movement. That is what led me to realise that the very conceptualisation of crimes against women and legal remedies are highly problematic as they are not from the point of view of women, leaving women deeply dissatisfied with the law and the legal system, in fact they have made women vary of the law and the law enforcement agencies.

It is therefore vital to understand and use feminist legal theory and feminist legal methods if we are to find just responses to crimes against women. At the same time we need a deeper understanding of the socio-political responses to prevent such crimes from occurring in the first place. Without change in attitude towards women and women’s issues, without recognising the personhood of women and change in gender roles and perceptions there will be no end to the crimes against women and the world will remain a fearful place or one which feels like a minefield every time a girl or woman steps out of her comfort zone.

Freedom for girls and women is freedom for all.

This course, therefore, will begin with an introduction to Feminist Legal Theory, Feminist Legal Methods followed by a study of the various forms of violence against women and the legal responses till now. After which will be the attempt to understand how well these legal responses have worked to provide justice to cis women victims and survivors of gender based violence and analyse why they have failed and left women dissatisfied and distrustful of the law and the legal system.

The reading materials for this course will be a combination of articles and case laws. At least one case study in each category of violence against women will also be included besides watching films in order to appreciate some of the nuances in the experiences of women that are missed in most class-room teaching of these topics. Students will be required to read these articles, cases, case studies so that meaningful discussions leading to sensitive understanding of gender based violence can be achieved. The discussions will centre around questions shared in advance for each session.