Celebrated on March 8th every year, International Women’s Day is a globally recognised campaign aimed to create gender awareness, as well as celebrating women all over the world. In the midst of this special day, we are also reminded on the inequalities and difficulties that women are still faced with on a daily basis. 2ser’s recent story on ‘Australia’s Domestic Violence Epidemic’ revealed that already in 2019, there have been “two known deaths as a result of violence against women.”

While these findings are quite daunting, we sometimes fail to recognise the struggles that men are facing behind closed doors. This thought comes with the recent documentary aired on Channel Nine, ‘Abused By My Girlfriend’. The documentary follows Alex Sheel, 22, from Leeds in Yorkshire, England, telling his shocking story of survival against his violent girlfriend, Jordan Worth. In the original BBC documentary, Sheel reveals not only the mental but the physical abuse he lived with during their four year relationship. “She took away my wallet, wouldn’t allow me to work and forced me to come to her lectures with her instead,” he says.

In the film, Alex also reveals the physical abuse he had dealt with. On one of the occasions in particular, he had been “starved, stabbed with a bread knife, blackened by hammer-inflicted bruising, burnt with a kettle full of boiling water,” and all at the hands of his girlfriend. So bad that he was days away from death, as reported by police who were called to the couple’s home.

The film goes on for just under an hour, with many stories of how Alex managed to live through this abusive relationship for four years before his girlfriend was arrested for “suspicion of assault.” In 2017, she pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm and coercive controlling behaviour, being sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail, the BBC reported. It really leaves you questioning “why didn’t he leave?” or “how come he didn’t get help?” Could it be that he was too embarrassed to speak up or maybe he didn’t think there was any help out there for men experiencing this hardship? We could sit here all day and think of reasons that could have been.

While according to statistics, the prevalence of violence against men seem to be at a lower rate, it makes you wonder how many men are suffering in silence, like Alex. Only recently the Morrison government has announced new funding towards the issue of domestic violence, with a “328 million dollar package of strategies to help prevent domestic violence in Australia.” The 1800 RESPECT helpline have also received funding as a part of this initiative, which will help to encourage all victims of domestic violence to seek help and have it readily available for them.

You can hear the full 2ser interview with 1800 RESPECTS General Manager, Nicole McMahon, here.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.