He belittles her.

He talks all the time and dominates the conversation.

He watches her all the time, even at work.

He tries to pretend he’s the victim and acts like he’s depressed.

He tries to prevent her from seeing you.

He acts as if she belongs to him.

He lies to make himself look good or exaggerates his qualities.

He acts as if he is superior to and more important than other family members.

She apologizes or makes excuses for her behavior, or becomes aggressive or angry.

She seems uncomfortable expressing herself in his presence.

She seems to be sick more often and misses work.

She tries to hide her injuries.

She finds excuses at the last minute not to meet you, or tries to avoid you when she meets you on the street.

She seems sad, lonely, withdrawn and fearful.She uses drugs or alcohol to cope.

(Source: Neighbours, Friends and Families campaign)

Psychological/Emotional Violence: Being controlled, isolated, demeaned, neglected, manipulated, etc. The use of intimidation, humiliation, surveillance, and insults to undermine the partner’s self-esteem and exert more control over her.

Verbal Violence: Being criticized, insulted, demeaned, or yelled at, etc. Hurtful or contemptuous words, insults, shouting, or silence.

Economic/Financial Violence: Being deprived of money to meet basic needs such as food, housing, clothing, or leisure, controlling finances, preventing someone from working, forcing them to quit their job, taking away their salary, spending all the couple’s money, contracting debts in their name, etc.

Spiritual Violence: Being prevented from expressing religious or spiritual beliefs, forced to follow religious practices that are not their own, forbidden to attend a place of worship, ridiculed for their beliefs, traditions, or culture, isolated from their community, etc.

Sexual Violence: Sexual exploitation, inappropriate touching, rape, and any other sexual act that the woman finds degrading, humiliating, or painful. These acts are committed without her consent. They can be obtained or committed through force, threats, intimidation, pressure, or manipulation.

Physical Violence: Being restrained, pulled, pushed, neglected, isolated, or physically injured, etc. Slapping, punching, kicking. Physical violence against children, pets, and property. Threats of physical violence also fall under this form of violence.

Sexual Harassment: Involves repeated sexual remarks, physical contact, or gestures that are unpleasant, degrading, and humiliating. Harassment can occur at home, work, school, etc.

Criminal Harassment (Stalking): Includes intrusion, threats, phone harassment, intimidation, being followed, or being watched.

Cyberviolence: Unsolicited and threatening behavior from a person or group using new information and communication technologies (ICT) with the intent to terrorize, harass, or intimidate a victim.

Femicide: The ultimate form of violence. It refers to the murder of a woman.

(Source: Voisin-es, ami-es et familles Campaign)

Domestic violence, or violence in an intimate relationship, is when one spouse controls and manipulates the other, leading to an imbalance of power within the couple. It’s a deliberate taking of control by the abusive partner, not a loss of control. Domestic violence can be present in all types of loving or intimate relationships: couples of all ages, all cultures, all socio-professional categories, married or not, living together or not, and so on. Domestic violence is present in heterosexual relationships and can be in same-sex couples, but given the power imbalance in society in general, the majority of victims are women and the majority of aggressors are men. To reflect this reality, we consider domestic violence to be a form of violence against women, on a par with sexual violence.

(Source: Neighbours, Friends and Families campaign)

Sexual assault is any act of a sexual nature that one person imposes on another against their will or without their consent.  It is an unwanted sexual act imposed on one person by another. If force, threats, intimidation or coercion are used to make a person do something against his or her will, it’s called assault.  The law states that an intoxicated person cannot give consent to sexual relations because he or she is incapable of making a rational choice.  Sexual assault is a crime of power and control.

Forms of sexual assault:

incest and/or sexual assault of children

dating or flirting that ends badly

dating violence

date-rape pills and/or date rape

rape or attempted rape by a stranger

sexual assault by spouse

gang rape

sexual harassment

genital mutilation

ritual abuse

pornography

and more…

Incest is sexual abuse committed by a family member or close friend.  The abuse may take the form of rape, sexual penetration (vaginal, anal, oral) with a penis, finger or object, unwanted kisses, exposure to pornographic material, exhibition in front of the child, forcing the child to listen to sexual conversations and sometimes even inappropriate looks.  This child abuse is committed by a family member, a close relative or a person in a position of authority over the child.