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By Mireille Rabenoro
Most of the data in this article were collected in the course of two studies: (i) 'Renforcement de l'intégration du genre dans les activités du projet intégré de sécurité alimentaire dans la région de Farafangana (southeast)' (Agro Action Allemande/Focus Development Association, Antananarivo, March 2004) and (ii) on violence against women sponsored by the Women's Legal Rights Initiative, Madagascar and conducted by Focus Development Association in two of the six provinces of Madagascar - Antananarivo (centre) and Toamasina (East), from August to October 2004.
Introduction
Almost 1 out of every 5 households in Madagascar is headed by a woman [1]. The majority of these women heads of households are separated or divorced, and the rest are widows or single mothers. The presumably large numbers of adolescent mothers who still live with their parents are not counted among women heads of households in the national statistics.
Unmarried Mothers
The main issue appears to be the discrepancy between existing traditional practices and behaviours and current social and economic realities. In the past, in many regions of Madagascar, pregnancy before marriage was a very positive asset for a woman or girl. This necessitated that to a large extent, girls had sexual freedom. As such, once they reached puberty, they moved into a separate house in the family compound, so that they would have the freedom to have sexual intercourse with their boyfriends, away from the (physical and moral) eyes of their male relatives. Paradoxically, it was considered a cultural taboo for a male member of the family to 'see' the sexual activities of their daughters or sisters. These practices still take place in many regions of Madagascar, particularly in the more remote areas of the country. This is in spite of the fact that there are more educated people; educated at least up to primary level [2].
Nowadays, in most cases, once a girl gets pregnant, her boyfriend simply deserts her, and she has to go on living with her parents. More often than not, the parents encourage the unmarried mother to have sexual intercourse with more men, as a means of livelihood. The perception is that occasional lovers will provide the girl with money or other material items she needs. Neither according to the law nor to the customs is the father compelled in any way to acknowledge the child as his own or contribute to his/her support.
Desertion by the biological father of a woman's child is considered a form of moral violence by the majority of the young mothers interviewed; worse than the prostitution that their parents virtually force them into. The reality is that these girl- mothers are unlikely to find men willing to marry them. In the vulnerable situations they find themselves, these young mothers are more susceptible to sexual harassment (reportedly involving physical violence) than other girls. This is because the men whom they turn down, often refuse to understand why they were willing to have sex with some other man but not with them.
Anti-Abortion Law
Abortion is illegal in Madagascar, and yet it is widely practised. According to UNFPA estimates, abortion is responsible for as much as 40% of maternal deaths in Madagascar. The horrifying figures include unmarried girls deserted by their boyfriends, and married women whose husbands refuse to allow them use of contraceptives. Firstly, denying these women access to contraceptives and secondly, the consequences of this denial can be considered a form of violence against women, who are not allowed to make decisions about matters that concern their own bodies.
Forms of Domestic Violence
The studies have shown that the most visible form of domestic violence is wife battery; usually due to drunkenness on the part of the husband. Less visible, but just as painful, is the psychological violence that women suffer - for example when a man threatens to reject his wife if the next child she is expecting is not a boy. In some cases, he may even set her clothes on fire. Another form of violence is what may be termed financial violence; when a husband refuses to give his wife money to meet the basic needs of the household.
No Protection
The law does not protect women who are heads of households. The law is concerned only with couples that are legally married. However, according to recent statistics [3], on a national level, only four out of every 10 couples are 'legally' married; the majority being married according to traditional rites. Women married in the traditional way have no right to alimony, for example. It was only as recent as 2001 that a law was passed in Parliament making violence against women punishable, whether perpetrated by a husband or a regular or occasional partner.
Traditional Forms of Protection
In most regions, customary laws do exist, under which widowed or divorced women who return to their native village are entitled to part of the family land to enable them eke out their subsistence. However, as available arable land diminishes for an ever growing number of heirs, customs tend to be disregarded. A woman's brothers, who had remained in the village, are usually unwilling to give away any part of a plot of land that is already deemed too small to feed their own families. The family solidarity that used to regulate traditional social and economic life has thus become obsolete.
In the region of Farafangana (southeast), a woman who leaves her husband's house to return to her parents' village, whether she was sent away or left of her own freewill, takes with her only the mosquito net and the blanket that her husband had offered her at the time of the wedding. On the contrary, in the past, a man was supposed to help his ex-wife support the children, by sending her money and/or rice. This custom was still enforced in the not so distant past [4]. Nowadays, a divorced woman has virtually no assets or means of production to start a new life and support herself and her children. Such forms of economic violence on the part of her closest male relatives, i.e. both the father of her children and her own father and brothers, have most serious impact on the lives of women heads of households and their children.
In all the southeast region of Madagascar, the society is organized into two main groups - the 'anakavy amin-dreny' (sisters and mothers) and the 'analahy amin-dray' (brothers and fathers). The function of the former was mainly to defend women's rights. According to reports from the late 19th century, when a woman was wronged - for example, if her husband sent her away during pregnancy, or if she was battered, she would report to the 'chief of women', and the man would be tried and sentenced publicly. Should he refuse to pay the fine, for instance, the women of the village would join forces to attack his house, and clear out everything they could lay their hands on, even driving away his cattle [5]. Recent surveys have shown that no such show of solidarity has occurred in the last 40 years. It seems that women victims of violence now suffer in silence because the traditional institutions and systems of support no longer seem to function. This is coupled with the fact that the women are not also educated enough to seek redress through the judicial system. In addition, they are afraid to act because they fear reprisals from the man.
Another form of institutional violence, as perceived by the women interviewed in the course of the surveys, is the fact that the father is, considered by customary law, the 'owner' of the children. As such, even when women single-handedly raise their children by themselves, working extra hours for years (in handicraft, as market vendors, and even entering into transactional sex) to meet the health and educational needs of their children, the children may be claimed at any time by the man.
Conclusion
In Madagascar neither modern laws nor customary laws directly oppress women. However, in practice, the uncomfortable sway between tradition - the essence of which is eroding, and modernity, which is still imperfectly understood, provides a subtle opportunity for the oppression of women and for women to suffer other forms of violence. It provides the leeway for girls to become unmarried mothers and become heads of households when they are economically unprepared for this responsibility. Thus, women suffer institutional violence due to the absence of laws, both modern and customary, capable of protecting their rights. They are subjected to economic forms of violence (when they are refused their share of the family land, or as agricultural labourers are paid less than their male counterparts). They are also subjected to sexual violence, both in their exposure to sexual harassment and when because of economic necessities they are forced into sexual transactions for survival.
Notes
1. 24.2% of urban households and 17.3% of rural ones, or a national average of 18.8% (INSTAT/DSM/EPM, 2001).
2. A survey, "Etude sur la déscolarisation des filles
à Madagascar", UERP/UNICEF, Antananarivo, 1996
3. Enquête Permanente sur les Ménages, INSTAT, 2001.
4. Deschamps, Hubert, and Vianès, Suzanne, "Les Malgaches du Sud-Est",
Monographies ethnologiques de Madagascar, Presses Universitaires de France, 1959.
5. Thos. Lord, "Jottings of a journey to the South East of
Madagascar";, in The Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar
Magazine, ed. Rev. J. Sibree, no XVI, LMS Press, Antananarivo, 1892.
* Mireille Rabenoro is a lecturer with the Department of English, Ecole Normale
Supérieure,
The University of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
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