THIS month marks the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The campaign kicked off on November 25 and will run through till December 10 every year. It is an annual event.
The whole point of this campaign is to rouse the government and non-governmental organisations on gender violence and hopefully influence change. I have always been of the opinion that 16 days is insufficient.
We need 16 years and 365 days of each of those 16 years to drum this message to boys and men alike. This is because they are the biggest perpetrators of gender-based violence and any behavioural change needs to be initiated by men.
What is gender-based violence? It is violence against women largely inflicted because of women’s perceived subordinate status in society.
We live in a patriarchal society which legitimises the superiority of men. The father is often head of the family and the mother is considered the neck, if not the feet, so she can be trodden on.
Men have always been considered to have a superior role over women and children. Even our systems of governance favour men with positions of power like chieftainship, president etc. Of course, society is slowly evolving and you are now finding more and more women occupying positions of power, but at best it is often ceremonial.
When we talk about gender-based violence, it includes everything from domestic violence, female genital mutilation, objectification of women, rape in all its variants from corrective rape to marital rape and sexual abuse of minors and physical abuse.
So where does gender-based violence occur?
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Well, the home is the biggest breeding ground for gender-based violence. Domestic violence, as it is fondly known, is probably the most prevalent type of gender-based violence that is inflicted in the home.
While some couples make love, others put on their boxing gloves to make bloody war. As it normally takes place behind closed doors, police often don’t want to interfere because it is a “private” matter.
Domestic violence is not prejudiced, it happens across different ethnic, racial, religious and social classes. It knows no geographic boundaries and happens in the First World as much as it does in the Third World.
Empowered or underpowered, women continue to be victimised at the hands of their loved ones. Most men perceive it is their place to “discipline” their wives or girlfriends in the privacy of their homes without outside interference.
However, let it be known that men do get battered too. I know of a woman who ironed her husband’s buttocks. Sometimes this can be retaliatory.
However, in some instances it can be provoked by women who also seek to enforce their authority in their home.
Unfortunately this is the most prevalent type of gender-based violence and it often goes unreported because of the fear, shame and humiliation associated with it.
The community is the second place where gender-based violence takes place. The way society reacts to gender-based violence will either perpetuate it or alleviate it.
Some schools encourage corporal punishment. Some societies believe in vigilante justice.
Gender-based violence can occur in the workplace. Let’s rewind to September 7 2013 when Nairobi governor Evans Kidero slapped Nairobi Women’s Representative Rachel Shibesh after she led striking workers to his office.
Following an altercation the governor slapped her, an act captured on CCTV camera yet the governor denied the allegation.
The conversation that followed this incidence was telling of the society we live in. Most men applauded Kidero for keeping Shibesh in line.
They felt she “deserved” to be slapped as her behaviour was confrontational and unbecoming. The flurry of abuse that was flung at this woman was incredulous.
Many felt her own husband was failing to keep her disciplined. This just goes to show that attitudes towards gender-based violence are deep-rooted and deep-seated.
The State is another conduit for gender-based violence in the way it legitimises power inequalities between genders.
Even the way the State reacts through legal statutes like Domestic Violence Act and policing of gender-based violence Acts will have an impact on how it’s dealt with.
As I was writing this article, the police unleashed dogs on the Women of Zimbabwe Arise as they marched peacefully in support of Women Human Right’s Day.
Which is why I say we still are still 16 years away from eradicating gender-based violence! Sukoluhle Nyathi is the author of The Polygamist. You can follow her on Twitter @SueNyathi
