<B>Amnesty has recently set up a platform of men committed to fight violence against women in Mauritius. Can you explain what this involves?</B>

Amnesty?s theme for the coming years is ?Violence against Women?. Its report on such violence in France speaks of ?une affaire d?état?. This says clearly that it is a major social, not an individual, issue. It is not only women who should fight against violence. That particular form of violence is a conscious decision that we, men, make about forcing women into submission in various ways. It is about our use of power. Abusive men cannot invoke stress, alcohol, and the behaviour of their victim.

<B>What led Amnesty to set up that platform? </B>

When women denounce violence against them, a great majority of men find all sorts of excuses to refuse to listen. When men tackle the issue, they can?t brush it aside in the same way. Men?s groups can help us understand how we develop this violence from our upbringing and in our daily lives. Men?s groups in many countries and cultures have proved that they can contribute to building families and a society rooted in a culture of non-violence.

<B>As a priest what have you learned about violence against women?</B>

Women suffering from violence come to us priests for support. It does not mean that we ourselves are not guilty of psychological violence against women. Violence is about power and priests wield a lot of it. I learnt a lot in my involvement with women?s and other movements for social change, from my work in adult education in many cultural settings, including genocide and civil war situations in Africa.

<B> And what motivated you personally as a priest to join that platform?.</B>

The first men?s group I belonged to was in 1984 with colleagues from The World Council of Churches in Geneva. Churches make wonderful declarations but the signs they give as institutions undermine them. One of the roots of violence today is the secondary status into which women are still forced. The so-called ?invisibility? of women. When we don?t see something that is there, it means simply that we are blind. Some religious interpretations either cause or reinforce this blindness.

For example, the first chapter of the Bible tells us that God created man in his own image and likeness. The second chapter tells us that God created woman out of Adam?s rib. Man is in God?s image and woman is in man?s image. Because it is men who control religious institutions and interpretation, the second story has predominated through two millennia.

The consequences have been tragic for women. In the middle ages, hundred of thousands were burnt as witches because they ?usurped? what men wrongly saw as their God-given preserve... and today, the ongoing violence against women and girls speaks for itself. I am painfully aware that we, male priests, can still be the mainstays of patriarchy, an oppressive, sexist system, which uses a warped, partial image of God. I have to do something about it to be whole.

<B>What measures do you intend to take in the context of this platform?</B>

I dream the platform will become a place where we, men, listen to each other and from there move together to take action in concert with women?s groups.

<B>Are you confident this initiative will be successful? </B>

I have never started or been involved in anything because I was confident that it would succeed. The struggle for social change is a long process. It is learning by doing. The only way to predict the future is to contribute to building it. No ?Dead slow, major works ahead?.