Time to stop abuse of women

Vietnam and Bulgaria that have made International Women’s Day a national holiday. We hope that others will soon follow suit.
Women and society in general, have a lot to reflect about on a day that is now more than 100 years old. Developments in women’s lives have been largely determined by the developments in their own countries. Apart from many leading ladies on the continent, Africa this year celebrates International Women’s Day with pride. For the first time in its 50-year history, the African Union’s chairperson is now a woman – Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is an eminent achiever in her professional and political careers.
This gives hope that issues that bedevil women on the continent will be given the needed attention and that resources will be availed to tackle them. In the Southern Africa region, the fact that the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development instrument is now operational, having been ratified by two-thirds of member states is something to be proud of. The objectives of the instrument are to provide for the empowerment of women, eliminate discrimination, and achieve gender quality and equity through gender-responsive legislation, policies, programmes and projects. These are objectives that can obtain in any environment. There have been major achievements, in various areas, but what is the net worth of those achievements in women’s lives and their communities in general? Are lives of women getting better, which would also mean the transformation of families and societies or it is the other way round?
When we look at women in high level decision-making positions, why is it that a so-called world leader, the United States of America, seems to be sliding back in this area? The current Obama administration has fewer women with cabinet portfolios. This is despite having a former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who stood out as a woman in her own right! Women elsewhere hope that this trend will not be replicated.
However, after the merry-making, speeches and everything, it is important that women come face-to-face with the real issues they face on the ground, as opposed to the grandiose plans that are normally discussed in conference rooms. What is there to celebrate about when we look at women’s health care facilities? How many women, especially rural women and the urban poor, are being indirectly denied the right to good healthcare facilities? How many maternal deaths have we registered in the past year, and what is being done about that? Should it take large statistical figures before action is taken? How about access to safe drinking water?
The right to education is another issue. Despite the progress that has been recorded, is this adequate? Do nation states walk the talk that when you educate a woman, you educate the nation? In some countries, how many girls failed to go to schools, and how many of them are into forced marriages? How many young women end up into prostitution because of lack of opportunities?
The feminisation of poverty and women’s suffering during military conflicts also continue to be major problems.
In most homes, let alone the market-place women are not just fighting for space, but they also want their voices to be heard. But, women have to balance these issues with the understanding that their rise does not mean the fall of men. This year, again gender-based violence once again has become a thorn in the flesh for women. It ranges from physical and emotional abuse, rape to outright killings. Hardly a day goes without reports of violence being perpetrated against women. However, we are not saying that women themselves are not also offenders, but all that women want from their governments is to look at the rate at which women are being abused and realise that it is unacceptable.
Just before New Year, the brutal gang rape of an Indian medical student forced the conservative nation to reflect on these acts, and to also revisit its laws. On Valentine’s Day the global community was also shell-shocked when South African paralympian and Olympic star Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three times with a 9mm pistol. There are hundreds of such cases, and the most amazing aspect is that perpetrators of such violent acts either walk scot-free and/or they are granted bail like Pistorius.
This is the indictment on domestic violence that women, working hand in glove with men have to deal with. What Reeva’s father said recently is also an element that touches on various facets of our lives if we have to stamp out gender-based violence: “It doesn’t matter how much money he has and how good his legal team is, he will have to live with his conscience if he allows his legal team to lie for him. But if he is telling the truth, then perhaps I can forgive him one day. If it didn’t happen the way he said it did, he must suffer, and he will suffer . . . only he knows”.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, let us all reflect on these words that have been said by so many people whose loved ones are victims of domestic violence. No society can move forward on a violence template. Even President Mugabe has said no to violence, not just political violence, but even domestic violence.