Concerns27: Do More...

Concerns27: Do More...: Do more than exist,live. Do more than hear, listen Do more than agree, cooperate. Do more than talk, communi...

Do More...

Do more than exist,live.

Do more than hear, listen 

Do more than agree, cooperate.

Do more than talk, communicate.

Do more than grow, bloom.

Do more than spend, invest.

Do more than think, create

Do more than work, create

Do more than share, give

Do more than decide, discern.

Do more than consider, commit.

Do more than forgive, forget.

Do more than help, serve.

Do more than coexist, reconcile.

Do more than sing, worship

Do more than think, plan

Do more than dream, do

Do more than see, perceive

Do more than read, apply.

Do more than receive, reciprocate

Do more than choose, focus

Do more than wish, believe.

Do more than advise, help.

Do more than speak, impart.

Do more than encourage, inspire.

Do more than add, multiply.

Do more than change, improve.

Do more than reach, stretch.

Do more than ponder, pray.

source: Consequering An Enemy Called Average, John Mason

Culture and Human Rights: How can we challenge Cultural Excuses for Gender- Based Violence?

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://genderindex.org/country/nigeria

http://www.hdinigeria.org/Publicatons.html

The First African Female Laureate Dies

The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai has died after a prolonged battle with cancer. She died on Sunday in Nairobi at the of age of 71.

Maathai a national of Kenya, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for promoting environmental conservation, women’s right and transparent government.

She was elected as member of the Kenyan Parliament in 2002 and served as a minister in the Kenyan government for a period of time. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement which planted 20-30 million trees in Africa.

Ms Maathai, who was a professor of veterinary anatomy rose to international fame for campaigns against government backed forces clearances in Kenya in the late 1980s-90s. Under the former government of President Daniel Arap Moi, she was arrested several times and vilified.

In 2008, Ms Maathai was tear gased during a protest against the Kenyan president’s plan to increase the number of ministers in the cabinet.

While accepting the Nobel prize, Ms Maathai said she hoped her success will spur other women to a more active role in the community, “I hope it will encourage them to raise their voices and take more space for leadership” she said.

Professor Maatha’s departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her – as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model and heroine; or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier and better place.

Source: Daily Sun, Tuesday September 27, 2011

Sex Strike Brings Peace to Communal Violence

A group of women in a violence plagued area of the Philppines came up with their own weapon to end the fighting – a sex strike.

They withheld sex from their husbands until they promised to quit fignhting. Their stand helped end clashes in July between villages in rural Mindanao Island. Women from one of the villages came up with the idea of a sex strike as a way to help rebuild their village and bring peace.

Many of them were fed up with not being able to deliver their products due to the violence that closed down a main road between the villages. The women wanted their husbands to end the fightings and by using their feminine wiles they succeeded in enforcing their wish.

The idea of holding sex for a cause is not a new one, the ancient Greek play Lysistrata tells the story of women who organised a sex strike to end a war between Athens and Sparta.

More recently, a strike was launched in 2006 in the Colmbian city of Pereira, known for its drug trafficking and violent crimes. The strike was implemented by wives and girlfriends of gang members to get them to change their life style and hand over their guns.

A similiar campaign was carried out by women in Kenya in 2009 to protest the growing divide in Kenya’s coalition government.

Source: Daily Sun   Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Pg 15

The Piper

He who pays the piper calls the tune... But the piper can decide how much he will charge for playing that tune if what he plays is;

1.        in demand

2.        rare

3.        particularly difficult (or in some way unique) to play

- RICHARD TEMPLAR