Gender Based Violence (GBV)

Painting (Lusaka Museum)

 Okey dokey, let's define Gender Based Violence (GBV hereafter),

 Violence directed against a person on the basis of gender. It constitutes a breach of the fundamental right to life, liberty, security, dignity, equality, non-discrimination and physical and mental integrity. It is often, out of the necessity of reality, interchangeable with violence against women.   
Have a gander at the statistics, any statistics. Here's a bunch of them from the last 10 years, I found here and there. They all tell a similar story:

• In the world, 35% of women have suffered violence. 1/3 of women have suffered physical or sexual abuse by their partner within a relationship. Of women murdered,  in 38% of cases the perpetrator was their partner.
• In Europe, 20-25% of women have been subjected to GBV.
• In the UK, 40% of women murdered is gender related. Only 24% of domestic violence incidents are reported. 1/3 of those in same sex relationships have suffered GBV. In 2004, 70% of women involved in prostitution started as minors, 85% of those having experienced sexual or physical abuse at home.

Get the idea? I write this post in the week when a woman in the UK was stabbed 72 times after phoning 999 to report her fears after her partner had threatened to kill her, at home with her children. There was a delay in responding to her call, quite a tragic one, it seems. In the same week reports have been published highlighting changes that are to be made in the way that sexual offences are dealt with by the police in the UK, centred around positions of power and ultimately meaning that men must "prove" consent. In this country there are more cases of rape coming to court and the issues of GBV are publicised, being addressed and often at the forefront of people's minds.

At the risk of getting monotonous, here's some more percentages:

In Zambia:

•  47% of women have been physically or sexually abused since the age of 15, 77% of these by their husbands, the highest figure for Southern Africa. In some surveys in some areas of society, the figure is 90% 
• The first sexual experience for 1/3 of girls was a forced one. 1/3 of girls are often beaten by a close relative or boyfriend. 
• 72% of men admit to beating their wives or girlfriends. 
• 1/3 of girls in school knew of someone in that school who had been sexually harassed. 
• In a 2014 survey in Lusaka, 30% of female school children reported sexual or physical abuse. 
• 41% of women suffering domestic abuse did not report it.

There are hundreds of statistics and they all tell the same story year in year out. You get the general idea. There is a massive issue in Zambia to do with GBV and the root of this problem, as elsewhere in the world, lies in gender inequality. The most vulnerable are the children and it is the children that must be focused on the get to the root of the problem.

Child defilement or rape is a major issue in Zambia and Africa. It has very serious long and short term consequences for the children including psychopathology later in adult life, infection and sexually transmitted disease. The fundamental damage to the child occurs prior to the abuse as they develop capacities such as trust, intimacy, agency and sexuality. The impact of these in all areas of adult life is well documented. Most affected children are between 2months and 10 years of age and 70% of abusers are immediate family members. The rest are usually in a position of trust such as guardians or baby sitters. Infection rates for HIV and other diseases are more prevalent in children due to internal lacerations during penetration and insufficient vaginal fluids. Brain functioning and development are also affected.

Right, here's a story, based on a true one. It's not a statistic and the names of places and faces have all been changed. This happens a lot, behind the statistics.

 Emma's story.

Mary lives in an extremely poor compound in Lusaka, Zambia. She was married eight years ago when she was 13 to a man five years her senior. Mary is now 21. She has three children, Emma aged 8, the eldest, Mercy aged 4, the youngest, and Sammy aged 6, in between. They live with their father in a little shack.

In late September, Emma was raped by her father in a small space between the outer walls of a nearby latrine in the compound. At some undetermined point after this, she was repeatedly raped at her grandmother's home.

In mid-November, neighbours of the family, on seeing and becoming concerned about the blatantly painful gait and ill appearance of Emma, questioned her grandmother, who revealed the fact that she had been allegedly raped by her father. Emma had confided in her grandmother.

One neighbour reported this to professionals and with her mother's agreement collected the child and took her to hospital. She was examined by medical staff and found to be severely injured and infected internally from the sexual attack. It was restated at the hospital that the attacker has been her father.

The incident was reported to the police by the professionals. The police did not immediately investigate the incident. The local inhabitants of the compound are expected to approach the police authorities and inform on any sighting of the suspect, who had appeared to have disappeared. They parked their car at the side of the main road and waited, on the outskirts of town.

Around Christmas time, Mary, the mother, was approached by the professionals and with her agreement, Emma and her two younger siblings Mercy and Sammy were taken to a place of safety. Mary gave a statement to the police claiming it was the either Emma's father or another man who had committed the crime.

Still unsuccessful with their futile search, the police eventually apprehended the father at the a local police station when he went in to report an unrelated crime and complained that his mother-in-law was refusing him access to his children at her home. On questioning, the names he cited for his children corresponded to those in the police notes, and he was arrested and put in the cells at the local jail. Police refused to release the father until the Emma had been to the hospital for further age assessment. This proved unnecessary as she was obviously a minor. Her HIV test results were, thank goodness, negative.

Emma had to go to the local jail and look into each cell in turn to identify the person who raped her. She saw and identified her father as the pertetrater. She was then taken to the gap between the latrine to identify the scene of the first crime. Her graphic description of the nature of the attack and what her father had done to her physically left no one in doubt about what had happened. She was extremely traumatised during this time. Emma described how before the second attack, her father had arrived at her grandmother's home and asked that Emma go with him. She states that her grandmother had refused but the father had taken her anyway by force.

Mary was asked by police, and agreed to make a statement and be a witness in any court proceedings. She may not, only time will tell. Her mother, Emma's grandmother, refused to make a statement for fear of reprisals. The neighbours who initially drew attention to the attack, after initially agreeing to provide statements and be witnesses, retracted the offers after a police visit.

Being a case of double incest and rape, the police are keen to obtain a conviction for this crime. Additionally the man has no family so the favoured bribe/compensation payment would be difficult to arrange. The professionals are hoping for similar. A conviction, a 25year prison sentence and the subsequent press coverage would do a lot to promote this tragic and all to common issue in the country. It would be a step towards breaking down taboos.

If the man had a family and access to money or land, a compensation payment would be offered to those parties involved and the matter and charges dropped. This would allow all parties to get on with their lives and Emma, most importantly of course, to live happily ever after.

In many parts of Zambia and in all levels of the society, gender inequality and GBV are acceptable. School children at play times act out role plays based upon it; the boys will remove their belts (if they own one) and whip the compliant girls. They have a right laugh. Normalisation of any behaviour makes any cultural or social change very hard to instigate, particularly in the adult populations. Education in these areas must begin at school and earlier.

Domestic and sexual abuse of children and young women has a profound effect on mental and physical and severe reproductive health problems. It has major implications for the continued spread of HIV and Aids. Women subjected to GBV are 50% more likely to be infected. Only 11% of women would feel confident of asking their husbands to use a condom, even if they were aware their husband was HIV positive.

The situation is not simple and any attempt, including this admittedly brief one, risks further simplification. Part of the problem itself lies in simplification. The more I learn about the country, the more complicated it gets and the more questions I am left with. I feel I know less as I go along. Through gender inequality, more so in Zambia and the rest of Africa, than Europe and the west, normally women are both economically and psychologically dependent upon their abusers. Unequal property rights mean women relinquish homes if divorced, reinforcing this dependance. Women who report rape are at risk of this and of being ostracized or stigmatized. They feel blamed and ashamed for what has happened to them. On the male side of things, power and dominance are such a part of the culture that they believe that what they do and how they treat women is right. Boys need positive male role models to act as a catalyst for change. The myth of virgin intercourse still exists as does the cultural belief that getting a child pregnant will mean that the man's business will grow and expand along with the foetus.

Here's some more statistics, painting this picture:

• 54% of men say do not have the right to refuse their husbands sex
• 53% of men say women sometimes deserve to be beaten
• 20% Aisof men say it's a woman's fault if she gets raped
• 46% of men say that forcing your partner to have sex is not rape
• 38% of men who say that in Zambian culture it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife

GBV only exacerbates gender inequality which in turn spreads Aids and causes "choice disability". Women end up with no power over their own lives, a massive detrimental disadvantage for a society. The massive proportion of women become a group unable to fulfill their potential in the world and this has been suggested as the overwhelming factor in crippling extremely poor nations and ensuring they remain in the vicious poverty trap. The people in those countries need to be empowered and the women are the lest empowered of all group. It is strange to have societies where the most oppressed live intimately with their suppressors.

 

Children, both boys and girls need to be nurtured and educated. This begins at school, but unfortunately so does the abuse. This is especially directed towards girls and gets in the way of their education and their advancement to secondary education levels. In  a 2014 study 30% of school children said they had witnessed or knew of GBV in the classroom. 1/3 of girls had been sexually harrassed by a teacher. There are initiatives underway to tackle this within schools, including safe spaces and girl's clubs. Despite these many girls are raped, sexually abused by both teachers and classmates, including on the journey to or from schools. These are rarely reported for fear of retaliation, stigma and blame, as well as unresponsiveness from education authorities. The wider and long lasting effects are the emotional injuries caused these girls, the discouragement to continue in education and the reinforcement thereafter of discriminatory practices.

In Schools 2012:

• 54% of students who experienced sexual violence or harrassment by a teacher/fellow student at or on the journey to/from school
• 50% of pupils who knew of a teacher who had sexual relations with a pupil, often lured by the promise of money, school fees, exam passes, exemption from punishment.
• 66% of female pupils had been harrassed by fellow students.

GBV in the countries schools results in infections, child pregnancies, dangerous abortions as well as depression and severe anxiety. It is a violation of recognised fundamental human rights.

Education within schools and in the football academies that children meet up at need to inform young adult women and children of their rights. The stigma associated with being a victim of GBV needs to be quashed. Economic laws need to be amended to reflect gender equality and not leave abused women scared that their husband will be imprisoned and she will lose the family home. Women need access to property ownership. The abuser is more often than not, the main wage earner in the household. For boys, negative stereotypes of power and male dominance need to be replaced by positive role models through sport and football and adults likely to find themselves in the position of role model need educating.

There are laws in Zambia focusing on GBV, notably the Gender Based Violence Act 2011. Between 2007 and 2010 incidents reported increased 347%. Despite this, conviction rates are still incredibly low. The majority of these cases don't get to caught and if your ask people in the street, many are unaware of the law.

The challenge is not only for women to embrace. In fact, the dire poverty and inequal position many women find themselves in, in Zambia and across the world can make this difficult. As Desmond Tutu expressed on the Intervention Day for Elimination of Violence towards Women in 2012, it is also the responsibility of males. They are the main pertetrators, they are the main abusers. Men must take responsibility too.

Statue of woman (Henry Tayali Visual Arts Centre, Lusaka)

In our age of modernity and global economics, especially when clashing with existing and differing traditional values in places like Africa, we living in the west, our actions effecting poor countries there, should also bear some responsibility. That would seem reasonable in a compassionate world. The root causes of inequality, perhaps everywhere in this day and age, stem from the implications industrialisation has in relation to girls and women's access to education, lifestyles, modernity, culture and challenges and life choices that occur at puberty, and it is perhaps the future welfare of countries such as Zambia and elsewhere in economic, social and health terms, that the empowerment of women will have the most impact.