We all have a duty to stop gender violence

What you need to know:

  • The acceptance of violence against women as the norm is, perhaps, more popular than we admit.

  • No wonder, diehard female feminists who face violence have had to contend with it in secret.

  • That is an acute cognitive dissonance and, until we confront this issue head-on, we will continue to battle some form of GBV.

Despite significant attempts at curbing Gender-Based Violence (GBV), it remains the most extreme expression of unequal gender relations in society and a violation of human rights.

GBV is, arguably, a major obstacle for achievement of gender justice, posing a serious threat to democratic development and public health, and a critical barrier to sustainable development, economic growth and peace.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report says 38 per cent of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner. The Huffington Post reports that at least a third of women murdered in the United States are killed by their male partners — husbands and ex-husbands, boyfriends and estranged lovers. That is three women dead everyday. And although GBV affects both men and women, it disproportionally affects women and girls more.

HUMAN DIGNITY

Kenya, though a signatory to several related conventions, treaties and human rights standards and programmes of action, does not fare any better. The ‘Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2014’ shows 45 per cent of women and 44 per cent of men aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence since they were 15.

GBV directly violates 23 rights and fundamental freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights in Chapter Four of the Constitution — including the rights to life, equality and freedom from discrimination, human dignity and freedom and security of the person.

CONTAGION EFFECT

Media reports show 10 people, most of them women and girls, were killed by people close to them in Kenya between May and September. We are inundated with news stories about violence against women.

There is a contagion effect between a highly publicised occurrence and the propensity of that translating into more incidents. The increasing cases of grisly murders of women may not be a coincidence but more of a social influence.

In a study, David Phillips, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, found that immediately after stories about suicides appeared, suicide cases in the area served by the newspaper jumped. Traffic accidents had the same pattern.

HIGH HORSE

Misogynist ideologies are being propagated on social media that women bring these atrocities upon themselves by seeking flashy lifestyles.

We all have a part to play in creating safe spaces for women — for instance, getting off our moral high horse and acknowledging that violence is being perpetrated against them.

Secondly, stop victim-blaming as it minimises the criminal act and makes the affected people less likely to come forward.

HIGHER STANDARD

Thirdly, let’s understand that women are not special; they have the propensity to be criminals, morally wayward, violent and, simply put, bad. Like men, they are flawed and should, therefore, not be victimised for being human or judged at an unfairly higher standard.

The acceptance of violence against women as the norm is, perhaps, more popular than we admit. No wonder, diehard female feminists who face violence have had to contend with it in secret. That is an acute cognitive dissonance and, until we confront this issue head-on, we will continue to battle some form of GBV.

Ms Mwende is a communications consultant. Twitter: @yvonneemwende