CA C 1 - Raising Voices

CAC 1
282
Activity 1.11 Consequences for Women’s Identity (1hr)
Objective
■ Explore the effect of violence or threat of violence on personal identity.
CAC 1
Steps
Part A – Brainstorming Consequences for Women’s Identity (15 min)
1. Discuss the idea of ‘personal identity’. Identity is a set of ideas we hold about ourselves that helps
us understand who we are, what our possibilities are, and how much value others attach to us.
2. Hold a group brainstorm on the consequences of domestic violence, or the threat of violence, for
women’s identity and daily lives and list all contributions on a flipchart.
3. Discuss how women have to hide parts of themselves because of violence or the threat of violence.
This actual or threatened danger makes women live smaller lives. It makes women unable to be
their full selves. Women must constantly calculate the threat of violence in their lives and modify
their behaviour to try to remain safe, or safer. Women lose vibrant parts of themselves as they hide
emotions and hopes, change behaviours, and fail to express opinions and feelings in an effort to
protect themselves from abuse or violence.
Part B – Exploring Exposed and Hidden Identity (45 min)
1. Give each participant a small brown paper bag and have many magazines available for
participants to look through and cut.
2. Ask participants to cut out images or words from magazines which symbolize the aspects of their
identity they feel able to show as their public selves, with relative safety. Participants should paste
these pictures or words on the outside of their paper bag.
3. Ask participants to cut out images or words from magazines which symbolize the aspects of their
identity they have to hide or suppress because of violence or the threat of violence if they allowed
these parts to be seen. Participants should paste these images on the inside of the paper bag.
4. If you choose to use this exercise in a mixed group, modify it appropriately to include men as well.
For example, the context of men’s lives may be the pressure they feel from peers and culture to
behave in a certain way. For example, what parts of themselves do they hide as a result of the
masculine roles they are supposed to maintain? What parts of themselves do they feel able to
express and what parts do they feel they have to hide in order to ‘be a man’ as society defines it?
5. Ask each person to explain the images on the outside and inside of her/his bag. Ask
participants to talk about how their lives and identities have been shaped by violence or the
threat of violence.
Activity 1.12 Consequences for the Community (1hr)
Objectives
■ Deepen understanding of the impact of domestic violence on the community.
■ Discuss specific consequences of domestic violence for the community and what could be done to
prevent it.
Mobilising Communities to Prevent Domestic Violence