Deirbhle Sheppard highlights the shocking and persistent extent of sexual violence in our society. She unscrambles the false myths put out by the far right and argues that in fighting these, we need to join together to fight all forms of gender oppression.
Gender-based violence is a harrowing epidemic, with 40% of adults in Ireland reporting sexual violence. Women are disproportionately affected, with a global estimate of 1 in every 3 women being subjected to physical or sexual abuse at some point in their life. According to the CSO in 2023, 70% of victims who reported sexual assault in Ireland knew their abuser in some capacity (e.g., current partner, former partner, relative, friend).
Yet, if you scroll down the twitter feed of any Irish far-right agitators or anti-immigration groups (though I would save yourself the brain rot), they claim that it is disproportionately immigrants who are perpetrating violence against women. Up to their old tricks, the far-right take a legitimate concern – violence against women – and spin it to propagate racist stereotypes about refugees and brown and black men. With the vast amount of these claims riddled with lies and misinformation, what are the far-right actually trying to achieve when they seem awfully concerned about the ‘safety of women and children’?
Women’s Safety?
The far-right have no hunger for women’s liberation. The way that they frame refugees and people of colour as dangerous criminals is an age-old racist trope. It comes from the colonial tactic which depicted indigenous people as ‘primitive’ and ‘violent’, and which dehumanised them to justify the discrimination and abuse to which they are subjected.
By spreading racialised myths about sexual and misogynistic violence on social media, they are selectively drawing attention to allegations against immigrants. It is a smoke and mirrors attempt to whip up fear within communities. If someone only cares about women’s rights and safety when the perpetrator is not Irish, then they do not care about women rights; they care about villainising ethnic minorities and people of colour. It distracts from the real issues of capitalism and gender oppression that creates and maintains conditions for violence against women and other marginalised groups, including refugees themselves. The dehumanisation of refugees by the far-right conceals the reality that these people are often fleeing traumatic situations: human rights violations, climate collapse, famine, poverty, and global inequalities fuelled by imperialism and war.
Shock, horror – the far right are misogynistic
As well as their racist shenanigans, the far-right narrative of “keeping women safe” is inherently misogynistic. Their so-called concern for women’s safety is based on the premise that women are subordinate and weak and need real men to protect them against bad scary men. This is gender essentialist and often excludes women who are not white, cis, straight, able bodied, or who don’t fit their image of a “traditional Irish woman” (i.e., white and docile). In fact, there are increasing reports of people being subjected to racialised hate crimes due to a rising anti-immigration sentiment. For example, in August this year, a Waterford-born young Black woman, Santia Osula was attacked on a Luas while the perpetrator shouted “Ireland is full”.
Far-right narrative on violence against women also reinforces the rape myth that women are more likely to be assaulted or attacked by a stranger. Yet we know that most victims of sexual assault know their perpetrator, and that gender-based violence is most likely to be perpetrated by an intimate partner. Not a week goes by where we do not hear in the news of a woman being abused by someone she should be able to trust. Take the fact that in a small town in Provence, France, Dominique Pelicot arranged for dozens of men to rape his wife, Gisele; or the recent conviction in Mullingar where a personal trainer sexually assaulted his client who was seeking help for scoliosis.
Regarding femicide, Women’s Aid estimates that since 1993, almost 9 out of every 10 women killed knew their perpetrator. The creation of a false narrative—that women should be most afraid of strangers who don’t look like them—actually delegitimises the lived experience of survivors and victims of violence by a partner or someone they know.
Let’s be clear: people do not find themselves as survivors of abuse and violence because they are weak or can’t protect themselves. It happens because of a horrible interplay between things like the threat of homelessness, underfunded services, poverty, inequality, a lack of law enforcement and adequate legal protection, a lack of consent-based sex education, fear of losing children, and trauma. These are just some of the compounding factors, and they stem from neoliberal policies, austerity measures, and year on year the failure to invest in adequate social housing, education, domestic violence services, healthcare and childcare. By pointing the finger at immigrants, the far-right is in effect doing the dirty work of the state, distracting from the real systemic issues which create barriers for survivors trying to leave abusive relationships or abusive homes.
The Reality of Gender-Based Violence
Part of the success of the feminist movement in bringing awareness to domestic violence was shifting the perception of violence against women as a private problem to a social justice issue. History shows us how gender power dynamics constructed by the state creates systemic gender inequality in private lives.
For example, economic abuse, such as taking control of finances, or stopping their partner from working, is a tactic on the part of the abuser to make their partner economically dependent on them. Women’s Aid has reported over an 80% increase in cases of economic abuse since 2022. Up until the mid-late 20th century, this form of abuse was normalised by Irish legislation; women in the civil service were legally obliged to quit their job once they married up until the 1970s. Marital rape was only criminalised in the 1990s; a woman was seen as the property of a man, and rape was considered property theft. The law did not recognise that a man could ‘steal’ his own wife (boke). Not to mention the horrible crimes committed by the catholic church against women and children. This is the legacy of oppression and intergenerational trauma that women are still reckoning with today.
The far right do not mention this. Herman Kelly, leader of the Irish Freedom Party and anti-immigration mouthpiece, is a staunch defender of the Catholic Church. He has long been known in his attempts at “journalism” to target survivors of institutional violence from mother and baby homes. He has written articles spouting victim-blaming narratives, claiming that women presenting in front of the residential homes redress board were lying to gain compensation. He even went as far as to write a book in response to Kathy O’Beirne ‘s own book, which attempted to nullify her experience of domestic and institutional violence.
His latest feminist pursuit has been an anti-abortion campaign, attempting to roll back on reproductive rights in Ireland. He is just one of the many far-right agitators who will spout anti-immigration rhetoric and sexual assault misinformation while standing side by side with an institution that has systemically oppressed women and children for decades. It is an absolute insult to the survivors of abuse and violence to exploit their experience and use it push racism and hatred, while also denying the lived reality of so many survivors of institutional violence and abuse.
LGBTQ+ Violence and Justice for All
It is also important for us to recognise that people who are not heterosexual and cisgender will experience sexual abuse and partner violence. For years LGBTQ+ identities have been oppressed, fighting for basic rights such as decriminalisation of queer identity (1993), marriage equality (2015), and the current struggle for transgender healthcare. Because of the constant struggle for basic rights and justice within broader society, it can unfortunately be overlooked that many LGBTQ+ folk too will experience violence within their relationships. There is no nationally representative data within Ireland, but international studies suggest that LGBTQ+ folk may experience equal rates of intimate partner violence as heterosexual women, with trans people potentially most at risk.
Despite this, queer people seem to be less likely to present to domestic violence services. In her book In the Dream House, a memoir of domestic abuse by her female ex-partner, Carmen Maria Machado writes “Queer folks fail each other too… It is not, for example, a surprise to non-white queers or trans queers that intercommunity loyalty only goes so far, especially when it must confront the hegemony of the state”.
When fear of reinforcing heterosexism and homophobia prevents queer survivors of domestic violence from seeking help, we must resist all forms of incitement of hatred against LGBTQ+ people, which render public spaces unsafe. In our opposition to fascism and the far right, we must ensure no marginalised groups are left behind. Far-right ideologies create hostile conditions for women, refugees, racialised groups, LGBTQ+ individuals and other marginalised groups. By scapegoating trans people and refugees, the far right not only supports divisions that the state has interest in fostering, it also distracts from the true sources of injustice affecting us all.
At anti-racist protests we shout “queer rights, refugee rights; same struggle, same fight” from the top of our lungs because we recognise the intersecting and systemic discrimination faced by marginalised groups which increases their exposure to violence. Our vision for a just future rests on the liberation of women, queer people, refugees, disabled individuals, racialised groups, and all oppressed identities. None of us are truly free until all are free.
