BY FELICE LOK

A spike in reports of family violence incidents during COVID-19 has revealed the challenges of preventing violence through gender equality education.

A 2020 Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre study revealed 59 per cent of practitioners responding to violence against women during lockdowns reported an increase in the frequency of violence.

The exacerbation of family violence during COVID-19 has meant that many women's safety organisations have shifted their focus to response and early intervention strategies.

The Matter of Respect project, supported by Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC) and led by Falam Chin and Karen communities from Myanmar, was initially funded by the Victorian government to prevent family violence in these two groups.

However, with the increase in family violence during lockdowns, project coordinator Capella Henderson said women and children were “more at risk than ever before”. 

Consequently, Ms Henderson said the initial focus of Matter of Respect had to adjust in light of the effects of COVID-19 on family violence.  

“I ran training capacity-building for the group and broader community on identifying, responding to family violence and pivoted away from the prevention lens for quite a lot of the project,” she said.

In March 2020, inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence received 110 new clients from migrant and refugee communities after a State of Emergency was declared in Victoria.

According to a 2020 study by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, the lack of multilingual information and language barriers mean women from migrant and refugee communities face difficulty accessing family violence services.

Similarly, the leader of the Prevention of Violence Against Women team at Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH) Kathryn Aedy said many different factors exacerbate the difficulties for migrant women to access mainstream family violence services.

“Someone’s experience of being a refugee or asylum seeker might mean they are triggered by certain things when going through the family violence system,” Ms Aedy said.

“And ultimately, they might, sadly, feel safer in the home of the perpetrator because of how unsafe they feel in other spaces.” 

Ms Henderson found that addressing gender inequality to prevent family violence was more challenging within culturally diverse communities where gender equality carries different meanings.

As part of Matter of Respect, Ms Henderson said ECLC worked closely with the communities to ensure their resources were culturally appropriate and relevant for the Falam Chin and Karen communities.

“There was a lot of different sensitivity around not wanting to cause harm to anyone in the community,” Ms Henderson said.

“I was just really mindful of young women speaking out about family violence and the repercussions that might have in their community.”

Similarly, through projects addressing the prevention of violence against women, MCWH raises awareness about gender equality in migrant communities.

“We’re constantly trying to challenge the idea that culture has anything to do with family violence, that an ethno-specific culture is an excuse for violence to occur or a reason not to talk about gender equality,” Ms Aedy said.

“We know that gender inequality across all cultures and backgrounds is responsible for family violence occurring and being perpetuated...it’s just that it happens differently, it doesn’t happen more or less in any one culture than another.” 

However, despite extensive attempts of addressing gender equality to prevent family violence, the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed a 13 per cent increase in family and domestic violence-related sexual assault from 2019 to 2020. 

In addressing gender equality and family violence, Ms Henderson said it is vital to have community-driven projects, especially by groups who have experienced trauma and come from a refugee background.

“If we don’t do that, then I really do believe we’re at risk of causing more harm through re-traumatising, through disempowering, through negating their voices, and through imposing our ideas on them,” she said.

“It’s just so important to create time, even if it takes a lot longer, and the space to be able to hear from the community and hear what’s of meaning to them.”

Over the past year, MCWH initiated the Safety and Support in My Language project which has delivered three health education sessions on gender equality, healthy relationships and family violence in Hindi, Mandarin and Arabic.

“We take that approach to progress to the topic of family violence because often, if you jump straight into the topic, you’ll get backlash and resistance,” Ms Aedy said.

Ms Aedy said they have now started conducting interviews with some participants to identify their likelihood of approaching family violence services.

“How different issues are experienced by migrant women should just be one of the key questions that’s always raised,” she said.

In March 2020, the Australian government granted $150 million to support 1800 Respect and Mensline Australia – two family violence phone counselling services.

Ms Aedy said working with men to prevent violence is an “emerging area within migrant communities”.

“There’s not a lot currently on men’s behaviour change and healthy masculinity that are in different languages,” she said.

To challenge gender stereotypes, Matter of Respect has produced posters in the Falam Chin and Karen languages with messages like “Strong boys cry” and “Dads can clean the house”.

Ms Henderson said the community has responded to the resources “really well”.

“The messages are very simple, and hopefully impactful and relevant to how they see gender inequality expressed in the community,” she said.

Ms Henderson said ECLC will be looking for further funding to support Matter of Respect. 

“We're very aware that it was a very short-term project and these conversations are long-term work that needs to be done,” she said.