When Senator Pauline Hanson walked into Federal Parliament wearing a burqa and claiming to be advocating for women’s rights, she was instead inflicting lateral violence.
“Lateral violence is the act of displacing aggression, frustration, or hostility, caused by systemic oppression towards peers from the same marginalised group, rather than toward the structures responsible for the oppression. It can include gossiping, passive-aggressive communication, sabotage, exclusion, and public undermining.”
A woman disrespecting other women – advocating for a form of exclusion – a ‘burqa ban’; that is lateral violence.
Though I have held various leadership roles in the domestic and family violence sector, I have never used the term ‘lateral violence’ before.
Why is Senator Hanson’s stunt lateral violence? In Australia, and around the world, women are disproportionately affected by all forms of violence and abuse – marginalising them in many ways. A female parliamentarian publicly disrespecting other women for their clothing and faith choice, is engaging in lateral violence.
The burqa-mocking stunt was a very poor start to UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence.
In their social justice report of 2011, the Australian Human Rights Commission outlined a human rights-based approach to lateral violence. The report also highlighted the importance of upholding the right to work and fair working conditions, pointing out that a “workplace that is besieged with lateral violence is an unsafe working environment.”
I applaud the suspension of Senator Pauline Hanson from the Senate for seven sitting days, however, if that stunt of lateral violence occurred in our workplace, I’d be considering terminating the Senator’s employment contract, particularly because this is the second time this disrespect has been perpetrated. It would be a breach of our workplace code of conduct.
Women are marginalised in Australia by systems, by social attitudes, by historical inequalities that persist, by economics and sometimes even by faith groups. Of incidents perpetrated towards Muslims in Australia, 75% of the victims are women and girls. The last thing women need, in the name of advancing gender equality, is another woman in a position of power publicly undermining them.
I am outraged that a member of parliament engaged in mockery and mimicry in her workplace, and I’m incensed on behalf of the Muslim women who genuinely make choices about what they want to wear in Australia, based on their faith or culture. All women have the right to respect and to live in safety. And respect for human rights is fundamental to peaceful, democratic communities.
Where I work at Mary’s House Services, we recently collaborated, organisation-wide, to draft our own values statement. I was delighted to see rights-based language emerging from this process, because the work we do for women and children in the domestic and family violence sector is protecting and advancing the right to gender equality and the right to live in safety. A summary of our shared beliefs is: we champion gender equality, celebrate diversity and advocate for everyone’s right to live in safety.
Lateral violence by women towards women deprives them of a sense safety in themselves and their community. Senator Hanson’s mocking of Muslim women’s face coverings (whether worn by choice or worn because of alleged oppression) endangers Muslim women’s sense safety in Australia. Lateral violence can have negative impacts on health causing physical injuries and damaging mental health. In my opinion, Senator Hanson’s claim that “these people don’t assimilate” and that she was “fighting for women’s rights, equal pay, equal you know, domestic violence” may impact the health of women who choose to cover their heads or faces, as well as the health of women who may not be making that choice freely.
Lateral violence suppresses the right to freedom of expression and the right to hold opinions without interference. In other words, Senator Hanson’s public mocking of the burqa may prevent women from freely expressing their Muslim faith with their choice of clothing – because they no longer feel safe.
Lateral violence can create toxic environments where people withdraw from opportunities to participate in decision-making that affects them and their rights. Muslim women who choose to cover their heads or faces as well as women who may not be making that choice freely, are very likely to have felt intimidated by the Senator Hanson burqa stunt – their visibility and clothing appearance has now been publicly and widely undermined by a federal parliamentarian.
And no, I am not asking Senator Hanson to “please explain” – explanations do not excuse disrespect and explanations don’t make our parliament or our community safer.