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Men: Why global gender violence?
2006-02-23 07:02:03
By Betty Okere.
Many have aired their views and condemned all sorts of abuses women endure, but little so far has been done.
I feel betrayed by my brothers, uncles, and platonic friends when I read in the papers and hear court cases still treating some men like beasts for unprintable sins that even Sodom and Gomorrah never lived to witness.
Whenever I jump into a daladala, talks which are not expressed by lips end up in faces and a keen study will show you where ladies are grouped in this planet earth.
Whenever police raids are mounted in Kinondoni and Ohio for prostitutes, men are not netted.
When you visit a church, women are the majority and that is because they are the major sinners who need repentance-I was told. Whoever has ears, only just fails to lock her ears listening to these ill-conceived ideas.
Many men take the advantage of the ignorance and the fact that some women feel shy and conceal their plight when abused.
Decent men treat ladies nicely and just to jog your memory, the Jamaican based reggae star Gregory Isaacs do remind his fans by singing, ’’.. Never, and never harass ladies….if they are wrong…correct them.’’
Rates of abuse can vary greatly in different areas and one that really tongue-tied me was the case involving the tough looking British nationals and a Bongo lady that appeared some years back in December.
When the verdict was passed the way it was, some men made sadist ridicules that ’’better Tanzania loose even so a chain of these prostitutes than being denied aid as a result of the likely squabbles that was bound to emerge.’’
I know the society is patrilocal but in the long run we are all human beings with the same desire and so forth. You need not to be told that beyond immediate injury, violence often leads to serious long-term health problems, including chronic pain, physical disability, drug and alcohol abuse, depression and suicide attempts.
The physical and psychological impact of different types of abuse and multiple episodes overtime appears to be cumulative and can persist long after the violence has stopped.
This is even why children of battered women face a greater risk of low birth weight, malnutrition, behavioral problems and infant death in some settings, according to Prof Chachage, UDSM.
When I dedicated my time trying to see whether its only a weakness confined in Tanzania, my research revealed painful memories worldwide including the Eldora do countries people think honey and milk is plenty.
In Costa Rica, for example, all a rapist has to do is offer to marry the woman and he will not be charged, whether the victim accepts his offer or not.
In Switzerland, clearly still lagging behind in equal rights, women were not allowed to vote until 1971.
In a backward corner of the country at Inerrhoden, women still have no say in local matters. They can only vote on national issues.
In Italy, one of the G8s mark you, the country’s supreme court says it is not a crime for a jealous husband to beat his wife, as long as he doesn’t make a habit of it. He will not be punished even if he lands her in hospital.
The police of the world, where every Dick and Harry long to stay and work, the USA, has in 22 American states, where teenage girls are required to notify their parents before seeking an abortion.
Seventeen-year-old Becky Bell of Indiana was unable to tell her parents of her pregnancy and had to resort to backstreet abortion. It resulted in her death due uncontrollable hemorrhaging.
In Utah, the law allows parents to sign their children away to others for money, which some do if they need cash.
Nearly 1,000 girls aged between 14 to 17 were married off in 1997 with some brides as young as 14 marrying men in their 50s.
In Peru, if a rapist marries his victim, he walks away free without prosecution. In cases of gang rape, all rapists are let off the hook if one of them walks the girl up the aisle. There are said to be three rapes an hour, or 25,000 a year, in Peru.
In Islamic countries like Algeria, with extreme Muslim laws, women have been beheaded for failing to wear a head covering.
Everybody has ever heard of Nigeria, here women are considered ’’incompetent witnesses’’ in cases of serious criminal offences, regardless of the facts.
In civil cases, the evidence of two women counts as one witness. Wife beating by a husband for the ’’purpose of correcting’’ is legal.
The whole world condemned the planned stoning of Amina Lowal who conceived out of the wedlock and never found the impregnator/man guilty.
One of the allays of the USA, Britain has this scenario. A man, who felt ignored by his pregnant wife, sexually assaulted his 12-year-old stepdaughter, but got off scot-free.
The judge explained, ’’A pregnant wife’s lack of sexual appetite leads to problems for healthy young husbands.’’ No mention of the problems for the stepdaughter, of course?
In Austria, a crazy law has been hanging around since 1938-it allows a husband to divorce his wife if she doesn’t do the housework.
One man recently got a divorce because his wife refused to use his favorite washing liquid.
African sport fanatics are now glued to Egypt, but far from the football fields, everyday an estimated 3,600 girls are subjected to genital mutilation, in which part or all of the genitals are removed.
This custom of circumcision suppresses sexual desire, safeguards virginity and is a social prerequisite for marriage.
In 1996,two girls aged three and four reportedly bled to death after a doctor circumcised them at their homes.
In the land where my right man died-John Garang, Sudan. Women wearing clothes deemed to ’’offend public morality’’ are punished by a minimum of 40 lashes.
Go to South Africa, in 1997,a Johannesburg radio station broadcast a 35-minute programme called ’’How to Beat Your Wife’’.
They defended the show by saying there is nothing wrong with wife beating as long as it done ’’responsibly’’.
In Zambia, most women have no right to own property. When a woman’s husband dies, she loses everything-with the exception of her children-to his surviving male relatives.
While in Afghanistan, women are forced to cover themselves from head -to –toe despite the scorching heat and have to be stoned to death for failing to do so.
They are not allowed to wear shoes that ’’make noise’’ and it is also illegal for them to walk on the streets without a male relative.
A teenage girl was punished 100 lashes-in front of 20,000 spectators in a sports amphitheatre-for walking with a man she was not related to.
Now with the above data, where are women safe, loved and valued as real players?
If and if only men can forsake the shackles tying women in the name of religion, culture, and baseless traditions, women are the best and uncorrupt species of human beings.
Go East or West, the population of women/females normally outpaces that of men, our brothers, but the statistics and press release every, always accuse men of scandals and brutality majority of women will never dare attempt.
I am not saying women are saints, but I expected their population to correspond with their brutality.
This fourth phase of government is doing a lot and I remind JK that we are fully behind him come what may for having recalled women back in the limelight from the chambers where they were condemned to snore and wait to be told what next by men.
For ladies, prove yourself worthy not by looking for godfathers but by forwarding your merit, then others will follow.
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