Actualidad, Mujeres Líderes
By Diana Rosenhek
Shalom Bait Team Attorney
Many times we ask women victims of violence to tell their life stories and the impact that violence has had on them.
Today it is up to us, professionals who assist these women, to tell about the experience of working day by day with this issue, in my case defending their rights and those of their daughters and sons.
As a lawyer, I can say that it is not only about the effect that work with women victims generates on us, but also about the institutional violence to which we are subjected, both women and their sponsors, in the long journey of their protection and defense of their rights and those of their sons and daughters.
When I finished my university training, I left the faculty with a certain background of theoretical knowledge, an insipient critical reasoning and the desire to start litigating in pursuit of achieving the much-mentioned “justice”, but with little or no training in the field. of the communicational and in the capacity to generate empathic links with our / os “clients”.
Many years later I decided to dedicate myself to family law, and when I had the opportunity to start working on the issue of gender violence, I became aware that in order to defend violated women, the application of the law was not enough, but It was also essential to assume an ethical and ideological commitment on the subject.
This that seems so simple and that we generally take for granted, is not. I had to learn to put enough distance with situations so that my work is not harmed, to deal with the identification with some women and / or situations, as well as overcome the fact of not being able to identify with others, and work on this so that it is not an obstacle in my task. Each and every one of the women deserves the best accompaniment.
This commitment is what leads me to communicate with them, understand them, sharpen my listening and generate a bond that allows them to feel that they are accompanied on a path as difficult as the judicial one, beyond the results of our intervention.
It is not enough that I show them my knowledge on the subject, it is also essential to be able to connect with them and with their suffering. It is essential that they know that I believe in their stories, that I understand their anguish, their anger, their frustration and their demand and that I am willing to accompany them in their demand for justice and defense of their rights.
This is why since I began working in the defense of women victims of violence, the concept of "client" has no place.
Now, this commitment is not innocuous; We have to face the re-victimization of women, the lack of listening, the minimization of the risk to which they are exposed and the permanent invisibility of their daughters and sons by the system. We undertake struggles that generate stress, frustration and helplessness. In these cases, maintaining our capacity for protection and accompaniment is a great challenge.
From this experience, I consider it essential that the legal approach to situations of violence be interdisciplinary, because it is the best way to help women, and at the same time it is a support and containment system among the professionals who work on the subject.
Just as it is often difficult for the rest of the professions to enter the legal reasoning and normative framework, it is also difficult for us as legal professionals to adapt to other patterns of reasoning and action. The articulation with other disciplines allows us to have a comprehensive vision of each case, deepen our ideological commitment and challenge injustice more freely, something impossible to achieve only from the legal framework, which is generally rigid and limited.
Actualidad, Mujeres Líderes
By Diana Rosenhek
Shalom Bait Team Attorney
Many times we ask women victims of violence to tell their life stories and the impact that violence has had on them.
Today it is up to us, professionals who assist these women, to tell about the experience of working day by day with this issue, in my case defending their rights and those of their daughters and sons.
As a lawyer, I can say that it is not only about the effect that work with women victims generates on us, but also about the institutional violence to which we are subjected, both women and their sponsors, in the long journey of their protection and defense of their rights and those of their sons and daughters.
When I finished my university training, I left the faculty with a certain background of theoretical knowledge, an insipient critical reasoning and the desire to start litigating in pursuit of achieving the much-mentioned “justice”, but with little or no training in the field. of the communicational and in the capacity to generate empathic links with our / os “clients”.
Many years later I decided to dedicate myself to family law, and when I had the opportunity to start working on the issue of gender violence, I became aware that in order to defend violated women, the application of the law was not enough, but It was also essential to assume an ethical and ideological commitment on the subject.
This that seems so simple and that we generally take for granted, is not. I had to learn to put enough distance with situations so that my work is not harmed, to deal with the identification with some women and / or situations, as well as overcome the fact of not being able to identify with others, and work on this so that it is not an obstacle in my task. Each and every one of the women deserves the best accompaniment.
This commitment is what leads me to communicate with them, understand them, sharpen my listening and generate a bond that allows them to feel that they are accompanied on a path as difficult as the judicial one, beyond the results of our intervention.
It is not enough that I show them my knowledge on the subject, it is also essential to be able to connect with them and with their suffering. It is essential that they know that I believe in their stories, that I understand their anguish, their anger, their frustration and their demand and that I am willing to accompany them in their demand for justice and defense of their rights.
This is why since I began working in the defense of women victims of violence, the concept of "client" has no place.
Now, this commitment is not innocuous; We have to face the re-victimization of women, the lack of listening, the minimization of the risk to which they are exposed and the permanent invisibility of their daughters and sons by the system. We undertake struggles that generate stress, frustration and helplessness. In these cases, maintaining our capacity for protection and accompaniment is a great challenge.
From this experience, I consider it essential that the legal approach to situations of violence be interdisciplinary, because it is the best way to help women, and at the same time it is a support and containment system among the professionals who work on the subject.
Just as it is often difficult for the rest of the professions to enter the legal reasoning and normative framework, it is also difficult for us as legal professionals to adapt to other patterns of reasoning and action. The articulation with other disciplines allows us to have a comprehensive vision of each case, deepen our ideological commitment and challenge injustice more freely, something impossible to achieve only from the legal framework, which is generally rigid and limited.
PHONE NUMBER
(011) 4701 5890
+54 9 11 4940-7973
Monday from 13.00 to 19.00
from Tuesday to Thursday from 9.00 to 19.00 hs.
EMAIL
info@shalombait.org.ar
ADRESS
Bonpland 723, CABA, Argentina.
FACEBOOK
144 - THE WHOLE COUNTRY
Advice, guidance, information and support for women victims of violence.
137 - CITY OF BUENOS AIRES
Attention and orientation to victims of violence. It carries out home interventions with a mobile team in emergency situations and accompaniment in making complaints.
102 - CABA
Information and referrals in situations of mistreatment and sexual abuse of Girls, Boys and Adolescents.
OVD
Receive complaints of domestic violence 24 hours a day.
Address: Lavalle 1250.
PHONE NUMBER
(011) 4701 5890
+54 9 11 4940-7973
Monday from 13.00 to 19.00
from Tuesday to Thursday from 9.00 to 19.00 hs.
EMAIL
info@shalombait.org.ar
ADRESS
Bonpland 723, CABA, Argentina.
FACEBOOK
144 - THE WHOLE COUNTRY
Advice, guidance, information and support for women victims of violence.
137 - CITY OF BUENOS AIRES
Attention and orientation to victims of violence. It carries out home interventions with a mobile team in emergency situations and accompaniment in making complaints.
102 - CABA
Information and referrals in situations of mistreatment and sexual abuse of Girls, Boys and Adolescents.
OVD
Receive complaints of domestic violence 24 hours a day.
Address: Lavalle 1250.