We’ve created 31 Actions for Gender Justice to raise awareness, spark conversations and take action that transforms gender and power relations, and the structures, norms and values that underpin them. Every day for the month of March we will highlight an action that advances gender equity and justice for International Women’s Day (IWD).
Stop Violence against Asian Women
31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 17
We grieve and rage with families of the victims, we strongly condemn the cowardly violent attack committed yesterday at three Atlanta-area massage parlours where a man shot and killed 8 people – 7 of them women of Asian descent.
The killing of 7 women yesterday in Atlanta by a man is about multiple layers of complexity and vulnerability where gender-based violence intersects: misogyny, racism, xenophobia, violence against migrant workers in sex economies.
It would be a mistake to believe that this wouldn’t happen in Canada where systemic racism and discrimination against racialized women, sexualized violence and violence against sex migrant workers intersects with misogyny.
Just today the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability released its report #CallItFemicide which documents 160 women and girls killed by men in 2020.
People often dismiss misogyny as a motivation for killing sprees because the devaluation of women has been so normalized historically that misogyny isn’t even considered as a factor for hate crimes, which is to say it doesn’t exist. Three of the worst mass killings in Canadian history sprang out of misogyny.
Immigrant and racialized women and people of marginalized genders face particular challenges because of racial prejudices. Particularly, Indigenous women, face higher rates of violence and femicide. Indigenous women in Canada are estimated to experience 2.5 times the violence than other women which Amnesty International called a “human rights crisis”. Indigenous women not only face violence more frequently but the violence against them is also much more severe. There at least 1,200 murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada.
We can’t stand by and do nothing, while violence against women is on the rise at alarming rates during the pandemic: xenophobia, racism, misogyny, violence and hatred fueled by COVID-19, white supremacy, and all forms harmful attitudes and behaviours that stand in the way of equity and justice.
Stand up and condemn violence against Asian women.
Support grassroots organizations dedicated to support Asian and migrant sex workers and massage parlour workers:
Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network in Toronto
Red Canary Song in the US
https://www.redcanarysong.net/
#CallItFemicide. Understanding sex/gender-related killings of women and girls in Canada 2020
