Ending Gender-Based Violence Is A Human Rights Imperative

 By Shobha Shukla

"There is a global epidemic of violence against women – both within conflict zones and within societies at peace –  and it is still treated as a lesser crime and lower priority," said Angelina Jolie, US actress and then-UN Ambassador for refugees more than five years ago.

With the onslaught of the pandemic and global public health emergency and cascading humanitarian crises, these words have only become even more relevant today.

The Asia Pacific region presents some very challenging development indicators for women and girls and socially excluded and marginalized populations. There are deep rooted gender inequalities and discriminatory socio-cultural norms and practices arising out of patriarchal systems and structures, and sexual and other forms of gender-based violence continues to remain pervasive in the region.

According to latest statistics, the proportion of women in Asia Pacific who have experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime ranges from 15% in Bhutan, Japan, Lao PDR and Philippines to 64% in Fiji and Solomon Islands. Also 4% (in Japan) to 48% (in Papua New Guinea) of women have experienced intimate partner violence in the last 12 months.

Is Angelina Jolie Starving Herself To Death?

It is, perhaps, time to try and look away from the overflowing praise the western media usually heaps on American millionaire actress and film maker, Angelina Jolie, whom they always glowingly describe as “trim and beautiful” and tell ourselves the simple truth that stares everyone in the face every day, but which only very few would dare to admit, namely, This lady is starving herself to death in order to continue to conform to the “approved” notion of beauty, and remain the darling of the entertainment media!

*Angelina Jolie

But if our eyes are not deceiving us, Angelina Jolly is just all skin and bones. She is badly emaciated. And whoever defined beauty that way must be using a very strange and overly bad dictionary!

*Malnourished?

Now, we are not the only ones saying this.  

As Angelina Jolly grabbed the headlines across the (western) world and soaked in the overwhelming compliments poured on her way due to her “exceptional beauty” after pictures of her appearance at the last Oscar Awards hit the headlines, Dr. Drew appeared on The VIEW—the American Talk and Variety Show, on March 2, 2012, and lamented that Ms. Jolly was “dangerously malnourished.”  

At last, somebody has said the unsayable!   

'She's malnourished… I just see malnutrition… We should not look at that as an ideal of beauty, even though she might be a beautiful woman … Something’s going on here,' Dr. insisted.

What an irony that Ms. Jolly is spending millions of dollars trying to feed underfed, malnourished children across the world, many of who look even healthier than she does. 

It is sad how a millionnaire actress and director is starving herself to death just to look "beautiful." But to many, she is scary skinny! Has she become enorexic? She surely needs some help.