Causes and Prevention of Violence Against Women
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In this article, we are going to look into the various forms of violence against women and their causes and also at the different ways to curb it
Violence against women means any deed of gender severity that results in suffering to women, physical or psychological torture.
The various forms of violence against women are as follows:
Sexual abuse. This is a situation whereby a woman is forced to have sexual intercourse without her consent or under duress, being compelled to her sex with the perpetrator's friends against her will or watching pornography, taking advantage of a woman or girl who is under the influence of drugs and alcohol to give her consent in doing the act.
Emotional abuse by deliberately making the partner feel bad about herself or insulting, being humiliated and belittled in the presence of other people, does scary things or intimidating the partner by the way he looks at her or by yelling, threatening to hurt her or the people she cares about and also damaging important
Economic abuse this is prohibiting his partner from having a paid job or engaging in any trade, taking her earnings against her wish, forcing his partner and children out of their home, keeps his earning for the purpose of alcohol and tobacco and other hard drugs knowing very well that his partner is not in a position to cater for all the household.
Physical abuse this may include kicking, slapping, shoving or throwing down the stairs by the partner, stabbing and at times threats to use dangerous weapons to cause bodily harm to her or her relatives and children.
Factors that lead to violence against women
Ignorance due to the fact that most people aren't well versed with their constitutional rights and other laws protecting them
For example in an event where a husband forces himself on his wife and has intercourse with her without her consent this automatically leads to marital rape which is a crime defined by law but the woman might not be aware of this and hence, doesn't know what to do about it, yet she has been sexually abused
Traditions and culture, there exists some rigid cultures especially in the African context which are repugnant and contradict with the laid down laws
For example there's a belief that when bride price is paid the woman becomes part of the man's property and no matter the consequences he's at liberty to do as he wishes with her
There's also the issue of wife inheritance whereby the woman is inherited by the husband's brother in demise of her husband, and it might be against her will (in most cases)
A woman has no right to own property in some cultures and has no say in decision-making both at home and in the community, though this trend is changing and women are seen owning businesses and property of their own
Financial inequality, this whereby one of the partner mostly the woman has more property or is earning more than the man in this case the man feels inferior
In this kind of situation the man ends up abandoning all the bills and household expenses to be handled by the woman and at some point ends up taking all that is owned by the woman by force thus the woman is left totally with nothing.
Poor parenting this is one of the contributing factors in that there are some homes where the father is used to harassing the mother in the presence of the kids, this leads to the kids especially the boy child thinking that it's normal for a woman to be mishandled, beaten and used as an object and in later years when this boy becomes a grown man and of age in many cases will treat his wife similarly the father treated the mother.
Prevention of Violence against women
In order to curb this menace the following measures must be put in place
Education
Educating the community and especially young boys and girls on how to co-exist and promoting healthy relationships and equality, working with young men and women (youths) is the best modest way for efficient fast and sustained progress in preventing and doing away with gender based violence
The UN women in partnership with the Word Association of Girl guides and Girl Scouts (WAG GGS) has formulated a global non-formal curriculum to include young people in a bid to end and prevent discrimination against women and girls
Campaigns
This creating awareness through community mobilization, media, and most importantly social media which is a component of a thorough effective prevention strategy
Workshops and Training
This will bring into light the importance of healthy co-existence and the importance of each other in the community, men and women will also be taught and learn how to solve their family issues peacefully and amicably without causing any physical or emotional harm to each other
Axe some cultures and traditions
By doing away with enslaving cultures that tend to sideline women like wife inheritance, denying women to own property of their own and instead replace them with modern cultures that give women a say and equal position in the society and in the family
Empower women
The government and all stakeholders should come together and formulate various ways of empowering women economically so that they can have economic freedom and at the same time give them equal considerations as their male counterpart's both in the government and all sectors that exist, some funds should be set aside at lower interest rate to assist women engage in different economic activities/projects.
In conclusion all stakeholders, if they come together in sensitizing the community about the importance of women in the society and at the same run campaigns in the media and more especially in all major social media platforms it will very much help in preventing violence against women.
