Violence Against Women
Source: Leadership
Even with the legislation and advocacy programmes against the evils associated with battery of the female gender, the scourge continues unabated in many homes with many women suffering emotionally as well as from the physical pain inflicted on them by their male counterparts.
As Nigeria joined the world to celebrate this year's International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women with 16 days of activism which began on Tuesday November 25, 2014, the deep cultural belief that it is socially acceptable to hit a woman as a form of discipline is still acceptable. Domestic violence takes many forms including physical, sexual, emotional, and mental violence. Traditionally, domestic violence is committed against the female gender. The commonest forms of violence against women include rape, acid attack, molestation, assault and corporal punishment.
A victim of marital violence, Martha Dominic, stated that domestic violence cannot be eradicated in Nigeria because it is an acceptable part of the culture. "When I married my husband and he started beating me, people, including my parents, will tell me to endure it saying that it is part of marriage. When I gave birth to my first child, the beating became worse and yet, I was still being told to endure it. I would lock myself in the house for days to avoid neighbours' prying eyes. I also avoided my friends so that they will not hate my husband. But I had to run for my life when he almost broke my eyes. Before then, he had broken my wrist and I have two marks on my body which he said will serve as a reminder for the rest of my life. I didn't consult my parents when I was leaving him. I waited for him to go to work. By then, I was working. That day, I came in the afternoon and packed my things. Neighbors helped me because they knew the pains and trauma I have endured in his hands. Since then he has come with his family to beg and promised heaven and earth, but I know him and I know he will never change because his father was like that and two of his brothers too are also wife beaters", she narrated.
If Martha was lucky to escape with her life, Elizabeth wasn't that lucky as there are still allegations by her family that it was the husband that pushed her from their high rising apartment in Lagos to the ground in a fit of rage. According to her sister who preferred to be anonymous, in a chat with LEADERSHIP Sunday, she said, "My late elder sister married him even when he was used to beating her against our parents wish. She took in for him and moved in with him. Even while pregnant, he was still beating her. After the birth of their son, she got tired of the beating and moved out. They parted for some years and we were all happy that she has finally come back to her senses until he started coming again to beg her. We all discouraged her and our parents told her that if she should reconcile with him, they will disown her. Nobody can say what happened that night but neighbours told us that they came back in the night and started fighting and because they were all used to their fight, nobody went out to check until about two hours later, one of the neighbors that returned home late shouted from down stairs that there is a dead person on the ground. They all went down and saw that it was my sister. They went and told him that his wife was on the ground in a pool of her blood. He screamed and rushed down shouting that she said she was going out to buy something and he had been waiting for her inside. But the questions we have been asking is, why wasn't any money found on her body and why was she barefooted? We believed he killed her in the process of their fight and threw her body so that people will think she slipped on her way down the stair case. He was arrested and released for lack of evidence. He has an uncle in the police who is a top ranking officer. We left him to God and God avenged us because he also died last year".
Barrister Ugo Ike, an activist and founder of voice of the voiceless, an NGO that gives battered women succor said, "Domestic violence, also called intimate partner abuse, intimate partner violence, and domestic abuse takes many forms. Physical violence includes assault of any kind, ranging from pinching or pushing to choking, shooting, stabbing, and murder. Verbal, emotional, mental, or psychological abuse is described as using words to criticize, demean, or otherwise decrease the confidence of the victim. Domestic violence results in homicide as well. Victims, who live in a household where weapons and drugs are present, are used to having a greater risk of being killed by their abuser. Prevention of domestic violence involves providing economic opportunity, mentoring, role modeling, organized community programs for youth and families, school environment that prevents abuses in any relationship, and adult family members who nurture and who provide consistent, structured homes". Continuing further, Ike said, "The penal code application in the northern part of Nigeria specifically encourages violence against women. Underneath its provisions is the beating of a wife for the purpose of correction is legal by use of (Section 55 (1) (d) of the Penal Code)".
Nigerian women celebrated when the National Assembly passed the law to reduce gender-based violence. Violence against Persons Bill gave stiffer punishments for sexual violence and also provided support and measures such as restraining order to prevent the continuation of abuse because The penal code in the northern states allows the correction of child, pupil, servant or wife as long as it does not amount to grievous harm (Section 55). Furthermore, marital rape is excluded from the definition of rape under state-level Sharia penal code in the northern states and under the criminal code in the southern states, specifically, section 295 of the criminal code recognizes the act of resorting to some degree of violence for correctional purposes. The police and courts often dismiss domestic violence as a family matter and refuse to investigate or press charges. Another problem is that many women and girls depend on the financial resources of their husbands, fathers and families in many ways. This forces them to put up with domination for fear of the withdrawal of this financial support. A second crucial factor is a culture of silence that stigmatizes the victims of domestic violence rather than the perpetrators. Nigerian women are expected to behave with subservience to their husbands, and to that extent, domestic violence is often accepted as a part of marriage. Most importantly is its prevalent culture of silence and stigma for the victims of domestic violence
Olusegun Gbenga, a psychologist stated that, domestic violence is the intentional and persistent abuse of anyone in the home in a way that causes pain, distress or injury. It refers to any abusive domestic violence for different reasons. Most of the reasons given for domestic violence are mostly subjective to a husband's interpretation. For example, some men will complain of lack of respect for husband, stubbornness, imposition of will on husband and the rest. It can also varied based on region, religion, and class.
These violence could be in the form of Physical abuse and it includes beating, kicking, knocking, and punching, choking, confinement. Female genital mutilation. The second one is Sexual abuse, the third one is Neglect, Economic abuse, Spiritual Abuse and Emotional Abuse. Domestic violence has sent millions of women to their early grave and the only way we can fight this trend is to inculcate it as a course in our curriculum, organized Seminars and workshops, where trained Counsellors would assist in propagating the anti-domestic violence campaign, should be organised.