WASHINGTON: US President Barack lunched on Friday a campaign to end sexual violence against women, calling it “an affront to our basic humanity”.

At a White House ceremony, also attended by Vice President Joe Biden and senior US lawmakers, rape victims from across the nation narrated their ordeals.

Earlier this week, the White House also observed the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, which highlights the need to fight domestic violence against women in their teens and 20s.

President Obama, while encouraging women to speak up against this heinous crime, noted that “the issue of violence against women was now in the news every day.

Mr Obama said that sexual assault in college campuses across the United States was no longer something that the nation could turn away from.

“An estimated one in five women has been sexually assaulted during her college years — one in five,” said the US president in remarks shown live by all major television networks. He said that only 12 per cent of these assaults were reported, and of those reported assaults “only a fraction of the offenders are punished.” Mr Obama also said that while these assaults overwhelmingly happened to women, men got assaulted and raped too. “They’re even less likely to talk about it.”

The event began with one of the victims, Lilly Jay, President Obama, while responding to Ms Jay’s describing how she was raped as a first year student at Amherst College. She said she filed a complaint but it didn’t help her get justice..

Ms Jay said advocating an end to sexual violence required victims to relive their own incidents, which was difficult as “recalling rape always hurts.”

Vice President Biden called Ms Jay “the definition of courage.” He asked Jay’s parents to stand. He recalled dropping off his own daughter at college and saying an extra prayer: “God, let her be safe.”

President Obama, while responding to MS Jay’s sentiments, said as the father of two daughters, what happened to Jay had him “enraged,” but the response it had created had also encouraged him.

He noted that activists like her had turned college sexual violence into a movement, “We’re going to put a stop to it,” he said. He said victims were victimized by questions of what they were wearing or what they were drinking when they tried to get justice. “It insults our most basic values… we owe it to our children to live up to those values.”

Mr Obama said that instead of asking the women what they did to attract a rapist, the society should try to teach men how to behave in women’s presence.

“It’s on the parents of young men to teach respect for women,” he said, earning a warm applause from the audience.

The president also urged people who are present while someone tries to assault a woman to intervene. “It’s not just O.K. to intervene; it’s your responsibility,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 20th , 2014