The Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World
Conference on Women and Development in Beijing in 1995, defined violence
against women as “any act of gender – based violence that result in, or is
likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to
women, including threats of such acts, correction or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty, whether occuring in public or private life”
It was defined to encompass but not to be limited to
physical, sexual and psychological violence occuring in the family and in the
community including battering, sexual abuse of female children, dowry related
violence, rape (including marital rape), female genital mutilation and other
traditional practices harmful to women, sexual harassment of women at work and
in educational institutions, trafficking in women, forced prostitution and
violence perpetrated or condoned by the state.
In Africa, the subjection of girls and women to harmful and
discriminatory practices in the name of culuture is legendary and Nigeria is no
exception. In the Nigerian patriarchial society, women are exluded from
decision making on the choice of spouse, the number of children to have. The
cultural conception that the children belong to the father reduces the mother’s
authority over the children. Thus, many women as mothers report their children
to their father for discipline rather than discipline the children themselves.
This makes the children look at mothers as inferior to fathers.
Men relatively have more free time to devote to the media and
assert greater authority on what channels should be turned on at home.
Indeed women are regarded as second class citizens within the
home and this is more so in the wider community where they are not considered
suitable representatives of the community because weighty or serious issues are
perceived to be beyond their capacity. This explains why there is low
proportion of female office holders in all parts of the country, irrespective
of their ethnic or religious characteristics.
Until recently rarely was any female pastor found in
Christain churches. There is no female Imam in Islam. In traditional religion,
women are secluded from certain rituals and there are barred in virtually all
cultures in Nigeria from being masquerades.
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defined culture as
beliefs and attitudes about something which people in a particular group or
organisation share. Culture refers to beliefs and behavioural patterns which
are usually unique and perculiar to a particular group of people. A culture
could be beautiful, admirable and sustained so long as it does not conflict
with the survival, protection, development and participatary right of an
individual within the community or country.
Most gender violence based actions against the female folks
in African are excused as been the culture of the people. Research has however
shown that those who control the means by which societal behavioural pattern
are formed and acquired through education, religion and the mass media succeed
over time in transfering their ways of life to the majority who depend on them.
Thus polygyny and female seclusion both of which originated as social habits of
the wealthy (land rich) and the aristocracy became idealised and diffused to
other levels of society.
A lot of customary discriminary practices on women are relics
from the remote past which no longer serve the economic and social purposes
they served when Nigeria was largely a rural agricultural non monetised and
extended family based society. Levirate (that is widow inheritance or better
still husband succession) and polygyny may have been inevitable to check
agricultural labour deficit in a context of very high adult mortality and
abundant land supply in which a family or clan’s viability and status depended
on its agricultural output. These conditions no longer exist in those parts of
the country where this practice persists. What constitutes tradition in the
light of this is mainly the ideology of the dominant group in the society who
wish to maintain the existing state of inequlaity and make the subordinate
groups believe and accept the prevailing structure of inequality as normal.
The contrast between the experiences of widows and widowers
in Nigeria vividly illustrates the concept of gender. Widowers across the
country rarely go through trial by ordeal as prime suspect in the demise of
their wives or long confinement periods and physical abuse (such as scrapping
of hair with broken bottles, eating and cooking with broken utensils, putting
on same cloth and not bathing) as mourning rites for their deceased wives
whereas the reverse is the case for widows. Why is the great need for the
appeasment of a late wife’s spirit through harsh rites never defined for men
especially when there has never been any report of a widow attacked by her
deceased husband’s spirit because she refused to go through the rites ? Why is
impurity of the widower not as pronounced as that of the widow? Thus the need
to challenge and renounce gender violence based practices camouflaged as
culture can not be overemphasised
How can we challenge cultural discriminatory practices?
One important way is by filling legal gaps in the protection
of women’s rights and by strengthening law enforcement. Public awareness
campaigns against harmful/discriminatory traditional practices need to be
backed up by federal legislation banning for instance female genital mutilation
and setting a minimum age of marriage. All international treaties and law on
the girl child and women’s right should be domesticated and implemented by the
Nigerian government.
There should be an entire review of the law with a view to
striking down all provisions that are inconsistent with the anti-discrimination
principles of the constitution e.g law on rape.
The requirement of the law for the proof of the offence of rape should
be made less stringent in order to encourage rape victims to report their
assailants to law enforcement agencies. Justice derived from mitigated
requirement for the proof of rape will help reduce the stigma placed on rape
victims.
There is a need to improve women’s access to formal education
and literacy so as to empower women to challenge and resist discriminary
oppressive cultural practices
Efforts should be made to ensure that datas and information
on the rights of women are well sought for and collated to assist planners
respond to women’s priority needs and address gender based violence.
Alternative dispute resolution system should be popularised,
less expensive and more accessible. The mediation system at the Lagos Ministry
of Justice in Nigeria is free of charge but at times clients are not well
attended to. The money involved for the certification of counsels to get
actively involve in the multi door system practised at the Lagos Court State
High is quite discouraging. The para-legal services offered by social welfare
departments in local government areas should be made known to people within the
area.
Litigation should be less mystified, free legal aids should
be intensified and more cultural practices encouraging gender based violence
should be tested in the law court. The effect is that these cultural practices
will be declared illegal and will in the long run become unpopular and
jettisoned
Undertake empirical research for further identification of
long term solutions to the problem of discriminatory and harmful cultural
practices.
Strengthen women’s organisations to be more vocal and
encourage greater gender sensitisation of women
Encourage the practice of will writing as a deliberate policy
to minimise problems associated with intestacy and sensitise men to request in
their testamentary wishes, the exemption of their widows from dehumanising
pracitices.
Provision of immediate succour to women particularly widows
through the establishment of a Trust Fund at the local government level which
will offer financial assistance and free counselling services to them.
Reform of locus standi rules to enable concerned persons
apart from the trumatised woman to take legal action to protect the right of
her fellow woman especially when the woman involved is too pain stricken to
take legal action.
Conclusion: Nothing short of a broad alliance between
parents, husbands and government bodies is necessay to challenge and combat
oppressive gender based practices. Cultures, customs and traditions of the
people should be reviewed and redefined to prevent gender based violence and
uphold survival, protection, development and participatory rights of women and
the girl child.
References:
1.
Bolaji
Owasanoye and Babatunde Ahonsi (1997). Widowhood in Nigeria: Issues, Problems
and Prospect. Society, Culture and the
Status of Widows in Contemporary Nigeria: A Gender Analysis
2.
UNICEF.
Children’s and Women’s Rights in Nigeria: A Wake-up Call. Situation Assessment and Analysis 2001
Other links:
http://www.hdinigeria.org/Publicatons.html
