A South Korean court has sentenced a man to three years in prison for a brutal attack on a convenience store worker in Jinju last November. The attack, motivated by the victim's short hair, which the accused perceived as a symbol of feminism, has sparked conversations about gender bias and social norms in South Korea, The Independent reported.
A CCTV footage of the incident showed the man entering the store after midnight, and punching and kicking the woman. ''Since you have short hair, you must be a feminist. I'm a male chauvinist, and I think feminists deserve to be assaulted,'' he reportedly told her, according to the police.
Local media reported that the man stopped the assault only when the police arrived at the scene.
The word 'feminism' has become a dirty word for a lot of people in South Korea, with people being unwilling to associate with the label. The country is deeply patriarchal and scores poorly for gender equality among advanced nations. It is also a place with strict and unforgiving beauty standards for women, and long hair is seen as a symbol of conventional femininity.
The young woman in her twenties sustained severe injuries to her ear and ligaments, as a result of the attack. However, her injuries were not life-threatening, police said.
The man was also accused of attacking another customer in his 50s who tried to intervene, resulting in fractures to bones in the customer's shoulder, nose, and forehead.
The attacker, who used a chair during the attack, was ordered to pay compensation, but women's rights groups criticized the sentence as lenient, especially considering the attacker's reported mental state.
"It is regrettable that the court did not see the incident as a hate crime," said a women's rights group during a press conference after the ruling.
"If an act of targeting someone out of hate, just because they belong to a specific group, is not considered a hate crime, then what is?
"The cause of this incident is not mental illness or an unstable state of mind, but the defendant's hatred towards women," the group added.
