This project aims to improve the reporting of femicide, inspire reflection and action to end intimate partner femicide in Vietnam.
Femicide, the intentional killing with a gender-related motivation of women and girls, occurs all over the world and is the most extreme manifestation of gender-based violence against women and girls. In most cases of femicide, women are murdered by their partners.
Through a unique collaboration of world-class, award-winning Vietnamese and UK social scientists, artists, documentary filmmakers, heritage ceramists, and activists, the project aims to improve reporting, inspire reflection and action to end intimate partner femicide. The partnership between IDS, CCIHP, and Varan Vietnam builds upon almost two decades of transnational collaboration on similar intractable topics.
The three main components of the project are:
- To contribute to a femicide observatory. To understand and document the scope and patterns in femicide in Vietnam with reliable, contextual data.
- Documentary film production. Social science research will inform the selection of the themes and angles. Documentary film makers will combine these insights with their own disciplinary research methods.
- Ceramic interactive memorial installation. Researchers and the bereaved will collaborate with traditional ceramic artists from the pottery village of Bat Trang on an installation with performances. Bat Trang means “white bowl”. The symbolic power of the bowls in relationship to femicide is enhanced by Vietnamese memorial rituals: bowls are used to burn incense, and the smoke is believed to connect the living and the dead. The results of the work will be available in English and Vietnamese.
Art and culture projects that engage with sensitive political topics such as gender-based violence, fail when they sacrifice artistic quality or are based on poor understanding of the phenomenon. This project will show how social scientists, documentary filmmakers, heritage ceramists and visual artists can collaborate leveraging their own disciplinary traditions, to address intimate partner femicide in Vietnam.
Social change requires people to have accurate information, but also to be affectively engaged and able to act. Affective engagement is a powerful resource for learning and interaction design. When scientists and artists collaborate, we can combine factual and emotive approaches to engage with citizens, the state and civil society.
Vietnamese public opinion is at a crossroads. Research shows most Vietnamese expect people to report gender-based violence. But media reports in 2021-22 of Vietnamese women and children killed by family members raised public concern that such violence is going unpunished. Our documentary film will be broadcast on national television in Vietnam and raise awareness among the country’s citizens and lawmakers.
Our partner organisations have a tremendous capacity to reach citizens. Vietnam’s national Women’s Union has 13 million members stretching from remote villages to the National Assembly. The national Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response Network in Vietnam (GBVNet) chaired by our co-investigator CCIPH includes 21 NGO’s, each with its own networks and connections.
Finally, the art installation “Bowl of Love,” a co-production between the bereaved, femicide researchers and artisans from the famous pottery village of Bat Trang, will honour and memorialise the women murdered. The interactive installation will be hosted at the National Women’s Museum. With this combination of research, media, organisational collaboration, and participatory art, we aim to enrich international understanding of femicide and contribute to Vietnam’s efforts to prevent it.
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