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By Mary Okumu
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This young girl was attacked and branded on the arm by Janjaweed militia in the remote western Sudan province, Darfur. Many women are not so lucky. They are abducted and raped. Women who have been raped are stigmatized within this society. “A woman who has been raped is like a piece of spoiled meat,” said one man, “Who would have her?”
Photo and story courtesy of Refugees International |
Definitions
The United Nations defines gender-based violence against women as "any act of violence on a woman by a man that results in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or private life." Gender- based violence is a crime against women and humanity and measures against it are stipulated in numerous United Nations' Conventions on human rights and by the Africa and the Beijing Platforms of Action 1994/1995, the Maputo Declaration on Violence Against Women of July 2004 as well as The Africa Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
Categories of Violence
Gender-based violence against women falls in two categories - Emotional and Physical.
Emotional Abuse: This includes verbal abuse such as hurtful words, teasing, making reference to parts of a woman's body in derogatory terms or using sexually explicit language.
Physical abuse: This includes touching without permission, pushing, pulling, slapping, pinching, kicking, beating and rape. Domestic violence, marital rape, scathing with an injurious object or liquid also fall under this category.
Sexual abuse: This occurs when a man insists on a sexual relationship without the consent of the woman. He may force himself on her, or may harass or coerce her.
All over the world, gender-based violence against women and girls can and does take place in public and private spaces.
The Africa Situation
Despite the talk about human rights and a new political dispensation aimed at eliminating all forms of violence and advancing the status of women, there does not appear to be corresponding change. Not only is gender-based violence against women heightening, it is widening and deepening at all levels of society in many parts of Africa.
Women not only continue to suffer immeasurable gender-based-violence in the region, they are deliberately targeted for harm, ridicule and torture. Women's bodies have become objects of attack during wars. This was recently witnessed in ethnic cleansing practices during the Rwanda genocide.
Women's Bodies Abused
No longer sacred, women's bodies in Africa are a deliberate object and target of physical and emotional brutality-they are battered, raped and mutilated. They are subjected to unimaginable humiliation and denied their human dignity.
Gender-based violence against women and girls has become an epidemic in Africa, yet this is not seen as such. Therefore, there are no systems in place to address these issues. It is visualised only as women's problem. Women's insecurity, pain and anguish are important and urgent matters to which the state must respond.
Women as Commodities
Women's bodies have become commodities- commercialised and offered for sale. Women's bodies are used to advertise detergents and automobiles. Women's bodies are exported and sold in the marketplace for sex. Women and girls from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania and many other African countries are trafficked abroad to provide cheap labour and (or) sex and as objects of pornographic experiments.
No Secure Place
Women and girls in Africa are not safe anywhere in our countries. They are not safe in the work place or in public places such as on the streets or in market places. They are not safe in places of worship, some of which are no longer treated as sacred places. Girls are raped or sexually abused in educational and learning centres. They certainly are not safe in our homes as they are raped by strangers and relatives right within the "home" environment.
The home which used to be a safe place is no longer safe for women and girls; almost every house burglary is accompanied by rape of women and girls. There is also the alarming rate of incest. The gravity of the matter is reflected in the following selected statistics.
The Facts
Today, South Africa ranks highest in the world on the matter of rape of women, despite its gender policy. More than 50,000 girls and women undergo female genital mutilation in Ethiopia and Eritrea. In Ethiopia, every year 40 girls commit suicide in protest of forced marriage. In both countries, the Governments have not fully implemented gender policies. This was recently reflected by the largest protest ever in Ethiopia in which 10,000 Ethiopian women took to Meskel Square (the physical and symbolic place of revolutions in Ethiopia) to protest against Government's lip-service to the Human Rights of Ethiopian women.
A catalogue of the types and scope of gender-based violence against women in Africa are highlighted in reproductive rights literature provided by WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and many others.
Conflict Situations
Accounts also abound of the more grotesque types and forms of gender based-sexual abuse and violation of women and girls in countries that have suffered armed conflict (including Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda Ivory Coast, Nigeria, etc.). This situation has been made worse by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Yet, many African governments continue to argue that they value women and children; that the concept of gender-based violence against women as in marital rape, incest and wife battering are concepts imported from the North. In fact many African governments do not see why 'women in Africa are making so much noise about sexual and gender-based violence against women'.
The lack of explicit and clear frameworks, policies, programmes and resource to tackle this issue on the part of African governments is itself unhelpful and indicative of lack of commitment to address the problem.
Whichever way it is visualised, guaranteeing and ensuring the security and safety of all its populations is the express responsibility of the nation state, without any exceptions. Women and girls are citizens of their nations and should enjoy their rights as such. They must also be protected from acts of violence perpetrated by men.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is a major category of violence against women. Gender-based sexual abuse of women and girls in Africa can be expressed either verbally, physically or through letters or messages, through a third party or directly by the perpetrator or his agent.
Control through manipulation, insults, ridicule, threats and physical acts also constitute abuse; for example, making a woman feel as though she can never do anything right. (She may be told such things as 'Nothing you do is ever good enough').
A Question of Power
As the examples show, violence against women and girls is about power and control. Acts of violence against women and girls are meant to hurt, demean, belittle, shame, 'teach them a lesson' or to discipline and show them how powerless they are. Female victims of gender-based violence inadvertently become emotionally depressed, anxious, unstable and even sick from these acts. The illness can be emotionally or physically manifest. These acts of violence emanate from, and are often propagated by traditional African societies in which men and women, boys and girls have been socialised to believe that abusing, controlling or beating a woman is a 'normal' thing to do.
Gender-based violence against women continues to have devastating consequences at all levels of society. Some victims of this crime become maimed for life as borne out in live testimonies and documented accounts of female survivors.
Root of Problem
Gender-based violence against women in Africa has to do with women's low social status and powerlessness as a social category. Women are the majority of the landless and homeless people in Africa today. Where armed conflicts have occurred in Africa, women have suffered a double tragedy.
Response of African Governments
Government response in Africa to the growing problem and crisis of gender-based violence against women and girls can be best summarised by the phrase: "too-little-too-late". As is the case when dealing with other issues, the approach of African governments is pitiably dependent on and shaped by external resources and agenda.
The common practice by African societies to frame gender-based violence against women as a women's issue or problem or a 'domestic' problem has also played down the significance of this problem.
In addition, the majority of the policy-making machinery are male - dominated and policy implementation and enforcement remain poor. Finally, no specific or adequate resources are allocated to fighting gender-based violence against women.
Even where there is expressed commitment to an issue, various African governments still lack the legal and institutional framework for responding to crises. Characteristically and historically, many have responded to crises by establishing gender commissions, task forces, ministries and this is mostly out of pressure or to fulfil the conditionality imposed on beneficiaries of donor funds.
In addition, many have signed UN Conventions on the human rights of women and are at task to impress their external masters. In actual fact, they are not genuinely committed to protecting the human rights of women and girls as citizens with equal rights as men.
Actions by Women
Given their disappointment at how government has approached issues affecting the rights and welfare of women in general, there is a growing discontent among women groups and activists. It is women and women's organisations that tend to spend resources researching, generating data and new forms of knowledge on this problem. This is in an attempt to convince their governments of the gravity and importance of this matter.
Clearly, more needs to be done in making this a compelling issue of national importance in Africa.
Bibliography
Carrillo, Roxana, Ana Maria Brasilleiro: UNIFEM, Women Against Violence: Breaking the
Silence, N.Y. N.Y. 1997
"Domestic Violence Against Women": Internet Search: Netscape Search Tool: Encarta Encyclopedia 1998
FIDA: 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003 Annual Reports on Status of Violence Against Women in Kenya
Khan, N., Sexual Harassment at the Work Place, Harare, 1998
Men as Partners: A Program for Supplementing the Training of Life Skills
Education, 2nd Edition N.Y., N.Y. 2001
Men of Quality are not Afraid of Equality: Voluntary Services Overseas: London, U.K. 2003
Okumu Mary Y.; Men Can Make a Difference in HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Support; A manual for integrating men into HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Support
, Nairobi, 2004
Okumu Mary Yuanita, The Injustices of Our Time: Women Suffering in
Silence, INCA, Nairobi, 2000
Okumu, Mary Y.: Where is the Violence Against Women Coming From? PhD; Research Work in Progress
Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim Societies. Montreal, Canada, 2001
Spindel C, Levy E and Connor M, UNIFEM: With an End in Sight: Strategies N.Y., N.Y 2000
The Private is Public: WiLDAF, Harare, 1995
* Mary Okumu is the Africa Programmes Advisor, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Kenya.
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