If we want to stop violence against woman and girls, we need to tackle the rape culture in our schools and the abuse in our churches, not just issue guidance to migrants, says Bekah Legg. The statistics prove that British men and boys raised with Christian values also abuse those made in God’s image
A government initiative to educate asylum seekers has sparked a major debate recently: a nine-page booklet has been produced to explain UK values and laws to those seeking refuge in Britain. It’s been jumped on by those on the right of politics as evidence that we should deport everyone who has grown up in a different culture to that of the UK, based as it is upon so-called Christian values.
These voices echo the ones that have been loudly defending ‘our women’ from the dangerous hordes that are coming into the country to harm them. Those voices, in my opinion, are simply weaponising the very real issue of violence against women to feed their racism. And that is not OK.
One of my daughters was sent a note at a Christian camp, aged ten, saying she was one of the girls these boys planned to rape that week
Those voices suggest that violence against women is a problem that only exists ‘out there’, in societies with different values to ours, and ignores the millions of women who have been harassed, abused and raped here in the UK - a country with a traditional Judeo-Christian heritage.
It suggests that white ‘Christian’ men could never be abusers. Unfortunately, Restored, the charity I lead, has more than 1,000 women in our community who can testify that just isn’t true.
Those voices suggest that there isn’t already a problem, that violence against women isn’t present in every culture, that all our sons do not need educating to understand what constitutes harassment, rape and assault. It suggests British men already know how to respect women and treat girls as equals. That, too, simply isn’t true.
A very British reality
The reality is that one in four women will be hurt by a man who was meant to love them at some point in their lives. 739,000 women reported a sexual assault last year -and it’s estimated that only one in six women make a report. Of those who reported rape, more than half were assaulted by a partner or ex-partner. More were raped by somebody else they knew. The problem isn’t just ‘out there’ in societies based on different value systems to ours. It’s here, at home.
Devastatingly, the highest prevalence of domestic abuse is in the 16-24 years age bracket.That means the problem runs deep in our schools, too. In 2021, OFSTED issued a special report that said British schools have a rape culture. That means it is considered normal to be harassed, assaulted and forced into doing something you don’t want to. That same report said nine out of ten girls had received unsolicited explicit images and were subjected to sexist name-calling.
The Everyone’s Invited website creates a space for girls to share their stories - and it hosts a terrifyingly long list of schools and universities where assaults have taken place. It highlights data that is now ten years old - that one child is raped in school on every school day, and in primary schools alone, three sexual assaults are reported to the police every school day.
With all that we know about the rise of online misogyny, it’s hard to believe that this has got better. Just last month, a group of young women from Tyneside made a short film to highlight the abusive comments they experience regularly, which included explicit sexual language and rape threats often masked as ‘banter’.
I’ve raised five daughters. I’ve worked as a teacher and youth worker. I’ve led a sex and consent education programme for schools. I’ve seen it and heard it day after day, for too many years.
One of my daughters was sent a note at a Christian camp when she was just ten years old. It said that she was one of the girls who these particular boys planned to rape that week. We’ll never know if they actually intended to do it, but the fact that they wrote and sent the note demonstrates a culture that is very much present in UK society still. And whether they meant it or not, she was terrified.
Change and the Church
If we care about women, equality and respect, then our focus needs to be on educating everyone. We need to tackle this issue head-on in our churches and not shy away from it.
In the beginning, we see God create men and women, both in his image, tasked with ruling the world together (see Genesis 1:27-28). After the Fall, God recognises the enmity that has come between men and women, and “he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). This is not God’s original intention and, if we want to see God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, we need to work to restore relationships between men and women to the creation ideal.
Jesus went out of his way to respect, restore and give dignity to women. As followers of Jesus, we should be leading the way in doing the same. It’s time to change the narrative and to challenge what is considered normal in our culture.
Here at Restored, we are about to pilot a new schools programme called Changing the Story with our friends at Kick. This will enable teachers, youth workers and chaplains to raise awareness of misogyny, challenge toxic cultures and model a different way for boys and girls, and men and women, to relate to one another.
The way to end violence against women is not to scapegoat asylum seekers; it is to educate everyone.
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