Breaking the Silence: Confronting the Invisible Violence

 

A Call to Recognize Emotional, Economic, Digital, and Structural Violence During the 16 Days of Activism

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,

Good afternoon.

My name is Sofonie Dala, and I am the founder of this platform. It is an honour to stand before you today, during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, to speak about something that is often ignored, minimized, or simply misunderstood.

Today, I will not speak about physical or sexual violence.

Not because they are unimportant — they are devastating, and they demand attention —

but because everyone already talks about them.

Today, I want to give voice to the forms of violence that are silent, invisible, and yet profoundly destructive.

I am speaking about emotional violence, economic violence, digital violence, and structural violence.

These forms of harm do not leave bruises on the skin, but they leave scars on the mind, on the dignity, on the opportunities, and on the lives of women and men — yes, both.

These forms of violence kill slowly. They destroy confidence. They drain hope. They break families. They suffocate dreams.

And I stand before you not only as an advocate, but as a survivor.

As a woman who has lived every type of violence I am describing.

As a citizen of a country where poverty — a poverty that should never be this cruel — has been manufactured, maintained, and justified by systems built by people.

Scholars like Johan Galtung and Paulo Freire, and many human-rights groups, teach us that poverty itself is a form of violence —

when it shortens lives,

limits freedom,

harms bodies and minds,

and denies basic human needs.

This is not theory. This is my reality.

This is the reality of millions.

As a woman entrepreneur, I have faced digital abuse, emotional manipulation, and abuse of power.

Today, I could have been celebrating success — taking, as we say, a “shower of opportunity.”

Instead, I have watched well-dressed thieves run away with my ideas, my awards, and the opportunities meant for me.

I have seen doors close because someone decided that their power was worth more than my future.

And here is the painful truth we rarely dare to speak aloud:

Sometimes, the people abusing their authority are women themselves.

Women harming other women.

Women silencing other women.

Women pulling the ladder up the moment they climb it.

It is painful. It is discouraging. And it is killing us silently.

But the silent violence does not stop with us.

Poverty, abuse of power, digital harassment, and emotional cruelty are destroying men, women, and children — often based on gendered expectations and stereotypes.

Some people are harsher on men because they are men — demanding they withstand everything, show no weakness, ask for no help.

Others are more manipulative or aggressive toward women because they assume women are weaker.

Both forms of thinking are violent. Both destroy lives.

Every day across the world, people take their own lives under unbearable emotional pressure.

How many girls have had their dignity exposed online and could not bear the shame?

How many businessmen have had their fortune or reputation stolen in the digital space and felt they had no way out?

How many people are blackmailed, humiliated, or emotionally tortured until they can no longer stand the weight?

How many families live as prisoners inside their own homes —

parents collapsing under pressure,

children absorbing trauma they cannot understand,

wives and husbands suffering emotional violence behind closed doors?

It is time to say enough.

Silent violence is not less dangerous than physical violence —

it is often more dangerous, because it hides behind smiles, behind institutions, behind culture, behind silence.

It erodes society from the inside.

Today, I stand here to say what many are afraid to say:

Silent violence kills.

It kills hope.

It kills trust.

It kills potential.

And too often — it kills people.

So during these 16 Days of Activism, and every day after, I call on all of us to unite.

To break the silence.

To expose the invisible.

To confront the structures, the attitudes, the systems, and the individuals who believe they can crush others without leaving a mark.

Let us commit to protecting emotional wellbeing as fiercely as we protect physical safety.

Let us defend dignity with the same strength we defend rights.

And let us build a society where no one — woman, man, or child — is left alone to face silent violence.

My name is Sofonie Dala, and I refuse to be silent.

For myself.

For those who survived.

And for those who didn’t.

Thank you.