Empowering women will help reduce gender based violence

Gibson Mhaka
VIOLENCE against women is undoubtedly one of the most widespread of human rights abuses and studies revealed that around the world as many as one in every three women has been beaten, murdered, coerced into sex or abused in some way and most often by her lover, husband or another male family member.

As the nation commemorates the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, there is no doubt that violence against women which both violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their rights and fundamental freedoms is the most pervasive yet least recognised human rights abuse in the country and the world at large.

This year’s commemorations are running under the theme “From peace in the home to peace in the community; promoting safe spaces for women and girls”.

The commemorations, which started on  November 25, will end on December 10, 2014.

Cases of strangled, stabbed, hacked and beheaded women are just some of the grisly or gruesome acts which should be highlighted as the nation commemorates the 16 Days of Activism against GBV.

Many stories have featured in the media  describing the manner in which victims of gender-based violence (GBV), mostly women, had lost their lives as a result of “passion killings” which are sometimes referred to as crimes of passion.

Although the country is plagued by all types of crimes, a spate of crimes of passion, in particular, have caused a great deal of heartache and many people are demanding immediate action to avoid added pressure on our already fragile social institution.

By definition, a crime of passion is when a person commits a crime against a spouse or loved one because of anger or heartbreak. When a person becomes very jealous or disappointed, it can produce such strong emotions that he cannot think rationally and may act on his impulses without thinking about the consequences. The latest incident of this callous act of violence is of a jilted Gweru taxi driver who allegedly ripped open his long-time girlfriend’s stomach, gouged out her eyes with a screwdriver and strangled her before attempting to commit suicide by drinking poison.

According to reports, the spurned taxi driver identified only as Charles and suspected to have been intoxicated, allegedly stabbed and ripped open the stomach of his estranged girlfriend, Fadzai Chipfunde, with a kitchen knife and plucked out her eyes with a screwdriver before striking her on the head with a brick.

Chipfunde’s death came a few weeks after a Binga man, Wonder Musaka, went berserk, chopped off his live-in girlfriend Fortunate Mutale’s head, put it in a cardboard box and took it inside the house before going to bed leaving the headless body lying outside until the next morning.

These grisly murders against women – all by men who once claimed to love them, occurred in such a horrendous way that would surely remain etched in the minds of many. Shockingly, these crimes of passion are also being perpetrated despite the fact that the country is having an arsenal of laws to protect women.

If such a law as the Domestic Violence Act which was passed in 2007 to provide maximum protection and relief to victims and survivors of familial violence in all forms of relationships is failing to serve its purpose by failing to change attitudes of the perpetrators, gender activists are of the opinion that there is a need by the government to unveil economic opportunities for women or come up with determined programmes designed to economically empower them as a viable implement to subsequently end the cycle of violence against them.

This is so because due to the hardships which accompany poverty, most women who later become victims of passion killings or domestic violence would have entered into a relationship or courtship for economic reasons. Importantly, strengthening the empowerment of women helps to reduce the effects of economic insecurity, which often leads to discrimination, intimate partner violence and other forms of violence against women.

In many cases, women experiencing violence choose to stay in violent relationships because of limited support especially financial resources to enable them to leave the violent situations and seek justice.

A case in point is of a Bulawayo woman, Tariro Moyo, who recently cried in court pleading with a magistrate not to send her abusive and live-in boyfriend Joseph Matarirano to jail despite the fact that he had savaged  her face, saying if jailed there would be no one to look after her and her two-year-old child.

“Your Worship when I reported my husband to the police after he brutally assaulted me I didn’t know that the offence attracts a jail sentence. I’m pleading with you not to send him to jail because there would be no one to look after me and my two-year-old daughter since I’m not employed. I don’t have any source of income and Joseph, despite the fact that he abused me on several occasions, is the breadwinner,” said a teary Tariro before a prosecutor asked her to fill an affidavit to have the matter withdrawn.

Tariro’s heart-rending case is a testimony that  if the government is committed to a zero tolerance approach to reduce the alarming increase of violence against women or passion killings as a concrete measure; there is a need to improve economic opportunities for women so as to cushion them from abusive relationships.

The entry point for economic empowerment programmes as a way to change attitudes of the perpetrators of gender-based violence is to provide women with access to financial products and resources such as credit, savings and employment which are likely to build assets. In the context of familial violence, economic assets help improve resistance-the ability to avoid staying in abusive relationships as well as resilience-the ability to recover from the effects of violence.

Beatrice Savadye, director at Real Open Opportunities for Transformation Support (Roots), an organisation which deals with women’s sexual, reproductive and economic rights, said given the prevalence and challenges with crimes of passion, empowerment of women can help them increase their economic security and self-esteem. For girls and young women, she said, economic empowerment including access to training services may help keep them in school pursuing their careers thereby reducing the likelihood of transactional sex, early marriage and pregnancy.

“As we attempt to address gender-based violence, there’s a need to simultaneously economically empower women and promote their access to education. There’re more cases where women stay in abusive relationships because they lack some alternative ways of surviving other than depending on their spouse, making them far more vulnerable to different forms of violence.

“There’s also need for a drastic shift in the way gender and women empowerment issues are addressed in all programming by various organisations and the government as well as promoting women’s participation in some key sectors of the economy. Participation means not only women’s physical presence but their actual decision-making power- at home, in the community, national and at global levels,” said Savadye.

Sociologist Tapiwa Sikwila said: “Whenever we talk about the currently intense and widespread cases of passion killings in relation to gender-based violence, there’s a need to understand that passion isn’t restricted only to sex or love or constant craving for someone. It has a deeper meaning which is also pivoted on economic issues. This is so because when men commit these atrocities, it’s not only out of desperation of unrequited obsession but they also feel betrayed by someone whom they were taking care of or heavily invested in.

“As the government is succeeding in building a sustainable economy, there’s also need to include the economic empowerment of women as a way of reducing the effects of economic insecurity which often leads to violence against them.”

While great strides have been made, economic empowerment of women remains a significant challenge across every initiative in the country, from education to health. Let us make the invisible visible and give a voice to the voiceless. Sustainable development will only be possible when women and men enjoy equal opportunities to rise to their potential. But today, women and girls continue to face disadvantages in every sector in which they work leaving them open to familial violence.

It should be pointed out that improved economic opportunities for women, if properly implemented, do not only reduce the rate of gender-based violence but can also lead to better outcomes for families, societies and the country as propounded by former president of the World Bank Group, Robert Zoellick who once said: “Gender and women empowerment are also at the core of what we need to do in development. It isn’t just a women’s issue. Improved economic opportunities for women lead to better outcomes for families, societies and countries”.

Another gender activist and South Western Region Gender Network (SWRGN) co-ordinator, Chelesile Nyathi, said although there is a need to economically empower women so that they do not entirely depend on men for survival, government and all organisations who are in the fight against gender-based violence should involve men as they are perpetrators of the familial violence.

“What people should bear in mind is that we’re in a patriarchal society, so whenever we’re dealing with issues to do with gender-based violence we should call for men, who’re the perpetrators of gender-based violence, to be also actively involved in all programmes designed to fight familial violence. The reason why we’re still experiencing a high rate of gender-based violence cases is because of the way we define it as a female victim and male perpetrator phenomenon. Let’s level the ground and package the progrmames in a balanced manner like what we’re doing to HIV and Aids issues,” she said.