Ending violence against women

The focus of many International Women’s Day activities this year was on ending violence against women.

For many years activists – both feminist and non-feminist – have been campaigning against gender-based violence (GBV), and drawing upon several international instruments, conventions and statutes that prohibit violence against women. All African states sign up to these instruments, and our intergovernmental multilateral organisations, whether at the regional or continental levels, have drawn upon some of these instruments and Africanised them in order to take our concrete, lived experiences into consideration. Having done these, the other frontline is the domestication of the laws in the national statutes of various countries through ratification. Even when that is achieved there remains the Herculean task of popularising them so that the public will know about them and sensitising the police, social workers, and the entire judicial system to take them seriously, investigate allegations and bring perpetrators to justice. Also there are many challenges about victims being sufficiently empowered to be able to report to the appropriate authorities.

No matter how good a law is it is only in its implementation that its impact can be felt. As any judicial activist knows, a law that cannot be enforced diminishes the status of that law.

Impunity arises not simply because victims do not have access to justice, but because perpetrators get away with their crimes and at times are not even aware that they have done anything against the law.

Therefore general public education and mass awareness must be sustained at various levels. This will not just be about laws but also confronting certain received wisdoms, and cultural and social practices that encourage violence against women and disempower them in voicing their pain, let alone seeking legal redress.

For instance, how many Africans (not just men but women too) will accept the charge of ‘marital rape’? There are many dubious interpretations of religion and internalised social conditioning that prevent women from accepting that they can say no to their husbands. Even girlfriends or mere female acquaintances are treated as ‘wives’ simply because they agreed to go out with a man or visit him. Imagine the reaction of many when Mike Tyson was imprisoned for date rape few years ago. Many asked, ‘What was she doing in a man’s room so late?’ But being with a man should not be interpreted as consenting to go all the way. It is a very simple definition: rape begins from the moment a women says no and a man does not stop. All kinds of specious cultural nuances are used to abet this particular crime by insisting that ‘no decent woman will just say yes like that’.

While the campaign against gender violence is gaining in momentum, it is important that campaigners do not concentrate on women alone. After all, it is generally men who batter and rape women, both in war and in peace. It is important to enter into serious dialogue with men to campaign against all kinds of gender-based violence together.

We as men must look at things and ask ourselves what our reaction would be were such violence to be perpetrated against our daughters, sisters and mothers. Our strength should not be in our fist, gun or between our legs.

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem writes this syndicated column in his capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.
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