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The role that women play in any community can never be overemphasised.
For a very long time, decisions that affect women were often, and still are in some cases, made without their involvement reducing them to receptacles of sometimes skewed policy decisions.
However, women play a very important role in community building and are hence a vital component in nation building.
For development to be sustainable it really has to cater for the concerns of the women and ensure that they play an active role. When women are allowed to participate, given room to acquire an education and granted access to health, their communities reap rich rewards.
On the other hand, when communities smother such a vital cog in a nation’s development, they not only negate this immense potential but also drag with them the dreams of a whole generation.
Gender-based violence strips women of their dignity and condemns them to a life of insecurity and prevents them from enjoying their full human rights.
It is against this background that we join the rest of the country, and indeed the wide world, in commemorating the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
When you wage a war against a section of the population, there is no way that the besieged section can be expected to contribute meaningfully since what they would be focusing on would be primarily their security.
Statistics show that in Zimbabwe, about one in three women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about one in four women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. The campaign against gender-based violence runs from November 25 to December 10, and this year’s global theme is, “Orange the world: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape!”, with orange symbolising a brighter future, free from violence.
Zimbabwe’s theme is “Prevention, Protection, Participation and Services; End Gender-Based-Violence”. Everyone has a role to play in fighting gender-based violence but the important thing is to be able to identify such violence and raise the alarm since victims are often powerless and vulnerable. The shame associated with gender-based violence should be rightfully apportioned to the perpetrator so that the abused can feel empowered to report such people.
It is not as easy as it sounds since most of the times the abusers have a lot of control over their victims and especially the risk of financial deprivation makes the victims suffer in silence.
Let us be good examples in our homes so that our children do not pick up the wrong values. In this edition we carry a story in which a man has banished his wife to the kitchen where she sleeps with the children, with limited blankets, and regular bouts of abuse.
Just last week we had a man telling a court that he had to run away from home into the wilderness hoping wild animals would devour him after suffering abuse at the hands of his wife.
We do not end gender-based violence by merely talking about it, we should take concrete action, to repent and reform and choose to be the good example that many homes are missing.
Online Reporter