Gender-based violence

Someone whose life most certainly revolves around the rights of women and protecting them is charity founder Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan.

The Zinthiya Trust has been supporting women and girls to live without fear of violence and abuse since 2009. In 2020/21, Zinthiya Trust supported over 1,600 Leicester women to be free from all forms of abuse and provided over 6,000 nights of emergency accommodation for them.

“We’ve come a long way as a society and some progress has been made, but we’re nowhere near what we’re owed. The pandemic has set us back another 10 years in terms of violence, inequality and poverty across the world. Other things can hurt women too, such as natural disaster, climate change, and conflicts. The conflicts in places such as Syria, Yemen, and the crisis in Afghanistan for example have impacted women in many ways including increased violence and breaches of their fundamental rights.”

A report by UNFPA stated that in 2021, women and girls reported facing intimate partner violence to a significantly higher degree than in previous years. There are increased reports of early and forced marriage as well as sexual harassment and exploitation, and cases of femicide are becoming a growing concern in some areas. Lastly, technology-facilitated gender-based violence such as harassment and sexual exploitation committed online has also been reported more frequently.

“I’m a firm believer that women’s oppression is a result of the patriarchal structures that govern our societies that consider women to be the properties of men. Leadership is associated with masculine traits like assertiveness and there’s a perception that women don’t have those strengths, yet when we assert ourselves, we’re gaslighted.”

But women also need to look inwards, Zinthiya says. She recalled a conversation overheard on a train between two females blaming feminists for why they must work, saying: ‘if it weren’t for them, we’d be at home with a cup of tea and a book’, clearly missing the bigger picture. On another occasion, she heard two women at a women’s awards ceremony ranting in the toilet, stating: ‘the problem with women’s events are that there are too many women’.

“As a woman of colour, I know we face a double-edged sword of discrimination. Not only men but also women at times do not take you seriously. People think you’re oppressed and needing to be rescued or think we all have an exotic story to tell, not understanding that we are all individual women with intersecting identities.

“International Women’s Day is not the only day we talk about women’s rights. We also need to talk about women’s responsibilities towards society as well as take responsibility for ourselves. Ask yourself what you’re doing to support another woman.”

The Zinthiya Trust

I’m a firm believer that women’s oppression is a result of the patriarchal structures that govern our societies that consider women to be the properties of men

She Inspires Business Playbox

A new project led by Zinthiya Trust will focus on women who face additional barriers to moving into employment and business and in particular those from racial minority communities, and underrepresented in employment, business, innovation and eco-sustainable business sectors. The six-week course helps explore business ideas and their viability, covers business strategy, introduces business start-up tools, teaches about finances and how to understand them, and more.

Sessions take place at The Hub, 10 Bishop Street, LE1 6AF. To enrol, call Zinthiya Trust on 0116 482 6598 or email zinthiya.trust@gmail.com.