Women with Epilepsy & the Risk of Abuse
Many factors which put women with disabilities at risk for violence and abuse apply to women with epilepsy. There is a greater incidence of sexual assault of disabled girls and women than of "able" females. Bear in mind, an able survivor of violence too often ends up with a disability, such as a seizure disorder, as a result of the assaults against her.
There are many factors which put a woman living with epilepsy at risk for violence. These factors are similar for all women with a disability. - Poverty
- Taught compliance & learned passivity
- Lack of credibility
- Dependence on others
- Lack of awareness of her sexuality
- Lack of awareness of her rights
- Lack of awareness of what poses a threat to her.
The offender in abuse or assault often views women with disabilities as weak, vulnerable, non-credible, non-feeling and asexual things. This provides a basis for their reasoning to commit these terrible acts against women, as this comment by a sexual offender shows: "It was OK to rape her, she didn't know what was going on anyway."
FACT: Many women with chronic neurologic disorders are survivors of domestic violence.
Sadly, the violence suffered by persons with epilepsy or other neurologic disorders (such as depression) is not widely studied or reported. In one study, the risk of violence for women with epilepsy actually increased in relation to the duration of marriage, the number of children and work outside the home. The possibility of domestic violence should be routinely explored in women with epilepsy or neurologic disorders.
All around the world, large numbers of women with seizure disorders tell all too familiar tales of being forced to have abortions, or of being coerced or forced to be sterilized – including hysterectomies performed without medical justification but to prevent the "bother" of menstruation. This attitude that people with epilepsy should not have children is certainly linked to the notion that women with epilepsy should not even be sexual – an attitude and belief which puts all women with a seizure disorder at risk for sexual assault.
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