Strategies to combat violence against women and girls
Gender-based violence (GBV) has been recognized as a global public health and human rights issue. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 1 in 3 women around the world experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
In the words of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, investing in Women is smart economics, investing in Girls is even smarter economics because you’re catching the women early.
In a situation where these women and girls are being ill-treated because they have been stereotyped as a ‘weaker vessel’ then such a community is doing a disservice to itself.
The European Commission posits that Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence aimed at individuals or groups based on their gender or violence that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately.
However, the United Nations defines gender-based violence as any act of violence against women and girls based on their gender; an act “that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
Domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, and forced marriage are all considered forms of GBV when they are aimed at women or girls. Female genital mutilation and so-called “honour” crimes are also commonly defined as gender violence. GBV can also come in subtle forms such as online harassment and violence, emotional, verbal, psychological and economic abuse.
Gender-based violence is a human rights violation that threatens the first article of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights which posits that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” It also threatens fundamental human rights, including the rights to life, liberty, and the security of a person; safety from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; equality before the law; and freedom of movement.
The Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) in 2018 found that 9 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 had suffered sexual assault at least once in their lifetime and 31% had experienced physical violence.
Statistics given by UNICEF explain that 31% of Nigerian women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence, with 6% occurring during pregnancy.
Girls are more likely to experience both sexual and physical violence than other combinations of violence, with 1 out of 4 having experienced sexual violence and 1 in 5 experiencing their first incidence of sexual violence before the age of 13.
Twenty percent of women and girls aged 15-49 are circumcised before the age of 5 in Nigeria, and 18.5 percent of girls were married before the age of 15. Women and girls with disabilities are twice as likely to experience violence of any form.
Gender-based violence (GBV) can occur as:
Intimate partner violence (IPV)
IPV is the most common form of GBV and includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and controlling behaviours by a current or former intimate partner or spouse, and can occur in heterosexual or same-sex couples.
Domestic violence (DV)
Domestic violence refers to violence which is carried out by partners or family members. As such, DV can include IPV but also encompasses violence against children or other family members.
Sexual violence (SV)
Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality, using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.
Indirect (structural) violence
Structural violence is “where violence is built into structures, appearing as unequal power relations and, consequently, as unequal opportunities.
Structural violence exists when certain groups, classes, genders or nationalities have privileged access to goods, resources and opportunities over others, and when this unequal advantage is built into the social, political and economic systems that govern their lives.”
Because of how this violence is built into systems, political and social change is needed over time to identify and address structural violence.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines violence as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, or deprivation.
Therefore, violence against women can be well understood as the intentional use of physical force or power against women in society, which exposes the victims to problems both socially, physiologically and emotionally.
This is the most common of GBV and it’s directed at women and girls. As such, it is sometimes used interchangeably, but for this article, our main focus is on Violence against women and girls and strategies for combating the menace.
According to the Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), violence against women and girls is being faced when they are persecuted and violated of their human rights. Nigerian women suffer violation through different means such as Violence in the home, Sexual harassment at school and work, Rape and defilement, Harsh and punitive widowhood rites, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Forced childhood marriages, Sexual violence in conflict situations and during armed robbery attacks, Enforcement of gender biased laws, Discrimination against the girl-child, Disinheritance of wives and daughters, Harmful traditional practices and lot more.
The UNHCR supports that VAWG is deeply rooted in discriminatory cultural beliefs and attitudes that perpetuate inequality and powerlessness in particular of women and girls.
A study recently commissioned by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development and the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) Nigeria with support from the Norwegian Government found out that “28% of Nigerian women aged 25-29 have experienced some form of physical violence since age 15.
The study also reports that 15% of women experienced physical violence within 12 months preceding the survey, Further, the level of exposure to the risk of violence varied based on marital status, and 44% of divorced, separated or widowed women reported experiencing violence since age 15, while 25% of married women or those living with their spouses have experienced violence.” (UN 2021)
The media in Nigeria is filled with stories and incidents of one form of violence against women and girls at home, street, workplace with so many sad endings.
In a recent viral video and news, the Police in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, arrested a suspect, Okoligwe Damian, over the alleged killing of a 300-level female student of Biochemistry at the University of Port Harcourt, Justina Nkang. According to reports, the girl happens to be the girlfriend of the alleged suspect.
She was not just discovered dead; some of her body parts were dismembered.
It’s so sad that there are so many cases like ‘Justina’ in our society.
The sad demise of ‘Osinachi’ is one of many incidences of domestic violence against women.
The likes of Vera, a 100-level UNIBEN student, who was 22 years old at the time of her death was purportedly gang-raped, beaten, inflicted head injuries and abandoned for death.
There have been so many hashtags seeking justice for young girls and women who have been brutalized and killed, hashtags like the recent #justiceforjustina, #justiceforosinachi, #justiceforuwa and so many others have made rounds on traditional and social media platforms. Young girls and women falling victim to ritual killings, kidnappings, domestic violence etc. The stories are heartbreaking.
The political sphere is not left out, as retrieved from the Vanguard newspaper dated March 1st,2022, the House of Representatives rejected a bill seeking to reserve special seats for Women in parliament. The lawmakers also rejected a bill for an Act to alter the provisions of the 1999 constitution to provide for affirmative action for women in political party administration and many other bills were rejected by the House of Representatives concerning women’s participation in politics.
However, some of these bills have been amended due to the clamour and intervention of international organisations such as the United Nations.
How about the sexual harassment that women face in society, workplace, community, and tertiary institutions where lecturers ask for sex in return for grades. A good cynosure into the larger society is the BBC Africa documentary on sex for grades.
The list is inexhaustible of how women and girls go through one form of violence or the other.
In Africa, especially in our country Nigeria, VAWG seems to be deeply rooted in cultural beliefs and traditions as such, people uphold several unspoken rules when it comes to addressing issues concerning a Boy and a Girl.
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In combatting sexual violence, numerous strategies can be applied which some of them are:
Orientation Cycles
The English Philosopher, John Locke, said humans arrive as ‘Tabula Rasa’ which is interpreted as a ‘blank slate’ as such the instructions, warnings, teachings and exhortations given to children are their building blocks for adulthood and here is where the work of orientation begins from. ‘Orientation Cycle’ and not merely ‘Orientation’ should occur at different stages of a girl child’s life. The Girl Child needs different dosages of instructions and awareness. Let’s look at some of the different stages and how proper orientation could save the day.
- Early Childhood Orientation
This is the stage from 1 year to 11 and this is the most suitable time frame for building a child’s confidence, composure and character. Parents and guidance need to impact their children with an ability to relate freely with them and report misdemeanours encountered.
It is commonly reported from cases of sexual child assault that parents and guidance are among the last to know about an incident of abuse their kids suffer owing to many reasons, one of which is a communication gap between parents and children.
At this stage, girls are most vulnerable to abuse because they can be easily manipulated except if given prior sexual education which should of necessity begin from the home.
- Adolescent Orientation
Being misinformed is as bad as ignorance and it is in adolescents that girls and generally teens are faced with lots of confusion as they attempt to understand their body changes and begin to seize the myth from the truth of all they hear. For example, some girls get abused by peers for not having a boyfriend at senior secondary while their male counterparts get bullied as “not fashionable” for not having sex. How about the many myths around a lady’s monthly blood flow the list goes on for the several issues girls encounter in adolescence which makes them more susceptible to gender-based violence.
A fine approach to gender-based violence will be to educate girls on what to accept and disregard about their body changes as they grow into ladies and how to protect themselves against gullible people.
Not Leaving the Boys Out
Everyone cannot every time focus the floodlights of attention on how to protect the girl child against violence and neglect train the boys and expect a balanced society. While it is a fact, that for centuries beyond count, women have been on the tough receiving end of gender-based violence it is not sufficient reason to pay deaf ears to nourish our boys to become responsible members of society.
The logic is obvious here, if more boys are trained to be well-behaved we will have fewer reports of violence against women. The ratio of men to women in prison has been about 10:1 for a long period and according to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime Research “most persons detained in prison globally are men (93%)”
To curb gender-based violence, as much attention given to educating the ‘Girl Child’ should be directed at the Boys. Let’s champion more ‘Boy Child’ campaigns while the sacrifices of Girls and Women are by no means undermined or unappreciated.
Training in Self Defence
The ability to stand up for oneself in the face of harassment is a good point from which to seek external help during gender-based violence but this is not usually obtainable, as a lot of women and girls have been wrongly cultured “not to know how to fight” forgetting the fact that there are no guarantees in life that all days are going to come by without physical aggression.
Self-defence will help girls and women prevent sexual harassment and other sorts of gender-based violence as it seems their oppressors at the initial attempt of attack behave themselves based on the body language of such girls and women.
Female Empowerment
According to Statista.com, ‘globally 247 million women age 15 years and older will be living on less than 1.9 US Dollar per day in 2021 compared to 236 million men. It further noted that gender poverty is expected to increase by 2030 as women will be in the majority of the world’s extremely poor.’
This fact tells the narrative and in Nigeria all you need to check the veracity of facts like these is to open your window at home and look through the streets and villages and it will be crystal clear that hundreds and thousands of women are enduring abusive marriages and make themselves simile helpless with rhetorics as ‘who will feed my children? How do I afford a shelter?’ and the list goes on. Others fear reporting their abusive partners to appropriate authorities for fear of being denied some privileges (which in the real sense are basic needs) as a backlash.
How about the rise of ritual killings with some cases very irritable as teenage boyfriends murdering a girlfriend for ritual purposes? It brings up thoughts as to why other girls still clinging to these so-called ‘rich internet fraudsters’ even when they discover their source of income. The answer is not far-fetched as many of these girls are oblivious to the know-how to make much money for themselves while others idolize their craving for flashy things and therefore cling to the fastest channel of gratifying their appetite in exchange for terrible sexual relationships.
Empowering girls with soft skills programmes, creative hubs scholarships, tertiary institutions scholarships, apprenticeships and vocational training will do much good to motivate girls and women to achieve financial stability and consequently reduce the queue of ladies hanging around abusive relationships for the sake of ‘daily bread.’
In conclusion, empowering women to curb gender-based violence, is worth noting that sponsoring programs/projects to raise female role models whose character and track record of success can help to build confidence in other girls to stand for another as good support systems for preventing and managing gender-based violence.
By Tosin Toluwaloju ([email protected])
