The issue that will confront us long after Covid has disappeared

MELINDA JONES: The disappointment of the National Safety Summit only reinforces the urgency of our collective challenge to combat violence against women

DURING THE LAST 18 MONTHS, there has only been one issue that  has been able to shift the spotlight from  the morass of Covid news. On a regular basis, violence against women has demanded attention.

Whether this is because of rape and other serious sexual misconduct towards women  on the sacred ground of the Australian Parliament, the murder of women who dared to walk home at night, the disclosure of violence against women with disabilities by the Royal Commission or the experience of everyday misogyny directed at high profile women such as Julia Gillard and JK Rowling, the matter of gendered violence is finally being recognised.

In March this year, women of Australia took to the streets to say Enough is Enough. Jewish women’s voices were there in number, because we know that the epidemic does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race or culture.

And we Jews even have our own special violence against women, which takes the form of Agunot – where men exert coercive control to prevent their wives from breaking  free from an untenable marriage. Judaism and the Jewish community do not protect women from violence in the home, from violence in the workplace or from violence on the streets.

On Rosh Hashanah the Federal Government convened the Safety Summit, intended to be a meeting of feminist and other organisations including NCJWA, survivors of violence and government actors. Together we were supposed to nut out the way forward, to configure a National Action Plan that would address causes, reality and prevention of violence.

Unfortunately, that is not what happened. Jewish women were excluded by the timing of the event. In fact, who was included and excluded is still a mystery to all. The sessions were not open and those you  could watch were all talking head sessions.