Violence Against Women

Last Friday I was talking with a friend who goes to my gym (no not my co-worker.) She spent a lot of time in NYC. The subject of racism came up. Racism in American and here in Korea. We talked about the case of Bonojit Hussain. She was glad to see the Korean courts do something about the racist (only identified as a Mr. Park) who insulted and harassed Mr. Hussain.

What sticks in my mind about the incident is how the Police and the courts did NOTHING about the actual physical assault on his friend Ms. Han. She was verbally abused, pushed, actually kicked by the racist piece of shit because she was travelling with a foreigner.

When I mentioned this to my friend she just nodded her head and sadly said "What could they do? If they charge him for hitting her they would have to charge most Korean men."

What the fuck? I was gobsmacked. My surprise wasn't because I had never heard about it before. Rather it was to hear a Korean acknowledge the problem. It is one of those things you KNOW goes on but never seems to be talked about.

I remember encountering violence against women my first night in Korea. I went out with some co-workers and their friends. On the way home I heard a woman screaming. When I looked toward the scream I saw this douchebag yanking down on a womans arm so hard I thought he was going to wrench it out of the socket. Needless to say she started screaming again. I shouted "What the fuck are you doing asshole!" He started pulling her, she kept screaming. I started heading towards him saying "You are dead motherfucker."

That is when two things happened. He noticed me and started blathering in Korean and a little English. In English saying "sawry...sawry" in Korean, well I had no clue. Probably the same, trying to excuse his bullshit. The woman took off because he let go of her arm when he noticed me.

The second thing that happened is my compatriots grabbed me and dragged me off. They droned on about you shouldn't get involved. She will end up with him later and he will just beat her worse. It is an attitude I would see a lot from foreigners in Korea. Don't get involved. To some degree I can understand it now. You can quite easily end up being the one in trouble with the law here because you aren't Korean. Mind you I still can't sit by and see a woman beaten.

I don't care if it means charging half the men in Korea or more. This kind of violence and abuse is something they should be trying to stamp out and not sweep under the carpet. In the case of Ms. Han it boggles the mind why that piece of shit wasn't charged, although I understand the Korean "media" is better at ignoring things like this than reporting it.