Grace Lewis - AsiaLIFE Magazine

A Professional’s Recommendations
house so neighbours could see what was
happening inside.
Grey Group Associate Creative Director
Rajib Gupta said they tried to communicate
the message that if it was not alright to
engage in this behaviour in public, then why
think it is OK at home.
“We tried to find something different, and
a big issue in Asian countries particularly is
loss of face. People may not see you but
if a woman goes out in public with bruises
on her face, people know where they came
from. It is not her that is losing face, it is
you.”
The United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime also conducts awareness raising
campaigns in the community. These efforts
include assisting to produce a national TV
series on domestic violence called Breaking
the Silence, and holding a writing competition
for members of the news media to
encourage more reporting on the issue.
“The review committee judging the competition
was overwhelmed by the response
with over 1000 entries received,” UNODC
Country Manager Zhuldyz Akisheva said.
The UNODC has also been working on
training local law enforcement officers to
better equip them to respond to domestic
violence cases. Akisheva said the agency
had worked with 186 police officers since
2008 in ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions.
“The aim is to create a pool of trained,
competent law enforcement officers who
can in turn train their peers,” she said.
“Our experience is they don’t know how
to apply the law, identify if it is an administrative
or criminal offence, gather evidence or
talk to the victims.”
Akisheva said the general mindset of
police was that domestic violence was not a
public issue but rather a family issue.
Nguyet of the Women’s Union was of a
different opinion. “If you are suffering violence,
you need to fight against it, not keep
quiet like the old days.
“We need to show the men that they can’t
beat their wives. It’s not their right.”
Martin Donnelly is a practising counsellor
with more than 20 years experience. He has
worked with both victims and perpetrators of
domestic violence in the United States.
Though he has only lived in HCM City for
a year, he believes that the general attitude
towards domestic violence is similar to that
held in the US about 60 years ago.
“It was very much accepted that it was OK
for a man to hit his wife,” he said. “It wasn’t
seen as abuse.
“I’m pretty sure that something similar is
operating in Vietnam. From what I’ve seen
there is a very strong sense of male privilege
here.”
In Donnelly’s opinion, for real change to
occur this attitude needs to shift. And to really
effect change, boys and men need to be
educated.
This is especially important since last year’s
National Study on Domestic Violence Against
Women in Vietnam found that boys who
saw their fathers abuse their mothers were
far more likely to beat their own partners in
adulthood.
Donnelly believes young men need to be
taught how to control their responses. They
need to learn to recognise when they’re
about to lose it and walk away before it’s too
late.
To really curb domestic violence, though,
he suggests using the media. While the
government has teamed with various NGOs
and creative agencies to develop advertising
campaigns and even a 10-episode television
show aired in 2009 called Breaking the
Silence, Donnelly suggests a more long-term
approach.
He cites one example that has worked
well in South Africa—the long-running and
very popular soap opera Soul City, which
broaches deeply sensitive social issues like
HIV and AIDS in a dramatic yet entertaining
fashion.
“That’s where I’d put my money,” Donnelly
said, “in producing a well-written soap opera
with characters that viewers can relate to.
"This is a problem that can only be addressed
on a societal level and that’s where I would
start."
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