In one of her many efforts to better the world, Angelina Jolie has made it her mission to end sexual violence and stop the social stigma that survivors face.
And while she is certainly doing that on a global scale, working with nonprofits and governments, the 43-year-old is also having those discussions right at home with her children — both the boys and the girls.
‘I don’t just speak to my daughters. I speak to them with their brothers,’ she told Marie Claire in a new interview. ‘That is maybe the first most important distinction. This is not just a problem for women, and the solution is working with women and men. And girls and boys.’
The actress, of course, has quite a few kids to share this serious discussion with.
Her eldest, Maddox — whom she adopted from a Cambodian orphanage when she was 26 — just turned 17 this summer.
There’s also 15-year-old Pax and 13-year-old Zahara, as well 12-year-old Shiloh and 10-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox, whom she had with Brad Pitt.
Angelina pointed out why it’s so important to include men and boys in the conversation, both as victims themselves and as the overwhelming perpetrators of sexual violence
‘Not only are men and boys also victims of these crimes, but those who are perpetrating these crimes need to have other men remind them what it really is to be a man,’ she said.
‘A man with a healthy relationship to women. And all societies need to be clear about not tolerating this behavior.’
In addition to starting the conversation at home, Angelina works with Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, a global initiative she co-launched with then-UK Foreign Secretary William Hague in 2012.
The initiative is working to stop assaults, provide justice, and end the social stigma for survivors. They are working to make it easier to report crimes, get more funding for governments to protect people and provide psychosocial support, and to help survivors rebuild their lives.
‘Sexual violence in conflict is still a taboo subject,’ she said. ‘Female and male survivors, and children born of this rape, are often treated as if they are the ones who have done something wrong.
‘They are rejected and stigmatized, while their attackers go unpunished. That’s what has to change, and breaking the taboo is part of that.
‘Our partners in this effort are victims speaking out, local NGOs and governments from around the world as well as militaries. We have to solve this comprehensively,’ she said.
‘We need to go to the heart of where there are abuses and make changes, and press for new practices and accountability.’
The star also listed several startling facts about sexual assault, including that 37 countries won’t prosecute a rapists if they are married to their victims, or if they marry them after.
There are also more than 60 countries that don’t even address male rape survivors in sexual violence legislation.
‘So we have to change laws as well as attitudes. And we have to find ways to have successful prosecutions, so that it is no longer a crime for which there is impunity,’ she said.
Angelina has been speaking out about these issues for years. In 2017, she spoke about sexual violence at a United Nations conference in Vancouver, Canada.
‘Sexual violence is everywhere — in the industry where I work, in business, in universities, in politics, in the military, and across the world,’ she said.
‘All too often, these kinds of crimes against women are laughed off, depicted as a minor offense by someone who cannot control themselves, as an illness, or as some kind of exaggerated sexual need. But a man who mistreats women is not oversexed. He is abusive.’
She addressed, in particular, the way rape and sexual violence is used in war zones and as a tool of control.
‘It is cheaper than a bullet, and it has lasting consequences that unfold with sickening predictability that make it so cruelly effective,’ she said.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
