U.S. Still in Denial on Gender Violence

This is welcome news:

The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States. The action reverses a Bush administration stance in a protracted and passionate legal battle over the possibilities for battered women to become refugees.

But one sentence caught my eye:

In addition to meeting other strict conditions for asylum, abused women will need to show that they are treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property, according to an immigration court filing by the administration, and that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country.

Are we kidding ourselves? Name a country, including the U.S., where domestic abuse isn’t widely tolerated.

In the words of the WHO, “Gender-based violence, or violence against women (VAW), is a major public health and human rights problem throughout the world.”

Here’s a chilling video in which Keira Knightley reenacts the vicious and cowardly abuse women are subjected to on a daily basis: