Europe’s Hypocrisy: The Unmasking of Structural Violence Against Women

By: A. Mahdavi

Even in the 21st century, Europe’s self-congratulatory narrative as a beacon of human rights and gender equality crumbles under the weight of its own contradictions.

Violence against women and systemic oppression persist as grim realities across the continent, sustained by the same imperial legacies and structural hierarchies that Europe now obscures behind progressive rhetoric. The continent’s failure to dismantle these systems exposes not just apathy but active complicity in perpetuating gendered violence and inequality.

A Pandemic of Violence, Enabled by Systemic Neglect

One in three women in the European Union has endured physical or sexual violence—a statistic that lays bare the rot beneath Europe’s polished facade. Domestic abuse, trafficking, and femicide remain endemic, not in spite of Europe’s “advanced” legal frameworks, but because of their selective enforcement. Laws like the Istanbul Convention, while symbolically significant, are neutered by political inertia, underfunded institutions, and a cultural tolerance for misogyny rooted in patriarchal and imperial histories. When justice systems minimize abuse, blame survivors, or side with perpetrators, they replicate the colonial violence that once subjugated entire populations—now redirected inward, targeting women, particularly those marginalized by race and class.

Economic Exploitation: The Imperial Legacy Lives On

Europe’s capitalist-colonial project created a global hierarchy of exploitation; today, this hierarchy manifests in the economic precarity of women. The gender pay gap (13% in the EU) and the concentration of women in low-wage, insecure labor are not accidents but consequences of a system designed to extract maximum profit from the most vulnerable. Economic dependency, a relic of patriarchal control, traps women in abusive households and workplaces. Migrant women, often from regions ravaged by Europe’s extractive policies, face compounded exploitation: racialized labor discrimination, precarious residency status, and exclusion from social protections. This is imperialism’s afterlife—structural violence repurposed to maintain gendered and racial subjugation.

Culture as a Weapon: Patriarchal Norms and Imperial Nostalgia

Europe’s cultural narratives glorify its imperial past while enshrining male dominance. Traditional gender roles, romanticized as “heritage,” normalize violence and silence dissent. Institutions—from courts to media—uphold these norms, framing abuse as private “family matters” or exoticizing violence against racialized women. The result? A society that demands women prioritize patriarchal stability over safety, echoing the colonial logic that sacrificed individual dignity for imperial order. Even “progressive” urban centers cling to these hierarchies, paying lip service to equality while resisting transformative change.

Intersectional Betrayal: When Imperialism Meets Misogyny

For migrant women, women of color, and those navigating poverty, Europe’s promises of rights and refuge ring hollow. They face a dual brutality: gendered violence amplified by racist institutions. Police dismiss their claims; shelters turn them away; employers exploit their labor. This intersectional oppression is no anomaly—it is the intended outcome of systems built on exclusion. Europe’s border regimes and carceral policies, extensions of its colonial mindset, ensure that marginalized women remain disposable, their survival criminalized or commodified.

The Myth of Progress: Legal Charades and NGO Band-Aids

Europe’s celebration of the Istanbul Convention and gender equality “initiatives” serves as a smokescreen. Laws without enforcement, policies without funding, and awareness campaigns without accountability are imperial tactics repackaged for the neoliberal age. Meanwhile, NGOs scramble to fill gaps created by state neglect, offering shelters and hotlines while the root causes—economic inequality, cultural misogyny, racial capitalism—go unchallenged. True solidarity demands more than charity; it requires dismantling the structures that make such charity necessary.

Conclusion: Beyond Imperial Feminism

Europe cannot lecture the world on human rights while its own women endure apartheid-like conditions. The path forward demands reckoning with history: reparations for colonial theft, abolition of border violence, and economic redistribution. It requires centering the most marginalized—migrant women, workers, and survivors—in policy and protest. Legal reforms are meaningless without dismantling the imperialist, capitalist, and patriarchal systems that render women expendable. Until then, Europe’s claims to progress remain not just hollow, but hypocritical.

The fight for women’s liberation is inseparable from the fight against imperialism. Only by eradicating both can we forge a future where survival is not a battle, but a guarantee.