RECENTLY we marked 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. We believe this was not an event but a reminder of a daily responsibility to desist from gender-based violence.
In our previous edition, we carried a story in which an uncle is alleged to have attempted to rape a niece several times with the aunt keeping mum even though she was reportedly told.
Of course the case is yet to be concluded and these allegations will be put to the test in court.
However, we find it very worrying that there is a trend whereby women, whether out of fear of their husbands or relatives, or to protect the so-called family name from shame, endure and at times abet the abuse of even those under their care. This should never be the case.
It should worry a parent if their kin or anyone known to them abuses another person since it just shows the person has the capacity to abuse even them.
We really do not know what the experts’ take on the issue could be but some of the people that we look up to for protection of even minors, have been so disempowered themselves and struck with fear that they cannot even protect themselves. It is against this background that we believe that violence can even have generational consequences.
If an aunt cannot protect their niece from their own husband, this could mean that they are also victims of abuse from the same person and cannot be expected to speak up on someone else’s behalf.
We have tended to associate adulthood with protection, with security but some adults have only the number of years to show for it, having had their rights usurped from them and forced to live in perpetual fear of partners that society assumes protect them.
There are many people, especially among women and children, who are physically intact but psychologically and emotionally scarred for life. Let us be empowered enough to be able to empower our children so that they assert their rights in the face of abuse, instead of accepting the culture of violence.
Elsewhere in this edition we carry a story of a teenager abused by two men, and later fell pregnant but is now unaware who could be responsible. This is a clear case of abuse as the events show that the girl made immature decisions and was probably enticed into a union that she naively entered without realising the repercussions.
It is our hope that she is receiving the necessary psychosocial support, and that the parents, after the initial shock and anger, are working towards rehabilitating her without unnecessarily maligning her over something that cannot be undone now.
Let us fight abuse where we see it, and where those expected to act do not do so, it is important to empower them with information so that they take their rightful place.
