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There is a remarkable history, process and politics that gives rise to the term ‘violence against women. 1 Women’s activism pulled these words together to produce new social and legal meaning. The term represents the force of the political struggles at the national and international level that made visible the insidious forms of violence women experienced and the connection between this violence and women’s inequality. The term also speaks to the many initiatives to prevent these forms of violence and provide protection against them.

I am using the term gender-based violence in this paper as well, not because I think it is illegitimate to talk in terms of women today, but precisely because we often see the category as special interest lobbying and lose sight of why the focus on women. The term ‘violence against women’was never simply about what happens to women. As Pat Mohammed says:“no one—man or woman—could say that it was an issue which did not affect them directly or indirectly”. 2