Checking Menace Of Wife Battering In Society

Across the length and breadth of Nigeria is the worrisome scourge of wife battering, as a daily occurrence. Indeed it has been globalised to the extent that some people described it as a phenomenon that had led to the collapse of moral values in the society.

   Mrs. Adaku Udodi lives in  a gheto, popularly called the ‘water front’ settlement in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. She is very popular in the neighbourhood and speaks all the three major languages of Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba fluently.  Other peculiar features she can be identified with is her musculine look, which makes other women dread her.

However, her middle-aged husband turns her into a punching bag on the slightest provocation. In response the helpless neighbours challenge the situation by shouting: “kill and eat.”

Mrs. Roseline Akpan whose husband is a taxi driver nurses a wound every now and then on different parts of the body. When asked, she said: ‘My husband beats me almost everyday’.

The media and the entire public were jolted last week as the Deji of Akure, a traditional elite threw decorum away and engaged his ayanfe in a street fight.

The Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo told Senate committee on Police Affairs that the royal father is to be tried for allegedly battering his wife.

This further confirms the interpretation that wife battering knows no class, religion, ethnic group, financial status as well as educational qualification and exposure.

Adaku, Roseline and the Deji’s wife are just few among the millions of women across the globe suffering at the hands of violent husbands or partners. While these few cases attract media attention, hundreds of thousands of cases go undocumented, unreported, unmentioned.

The rising tide of women battering  has attracted condemnations from different segments of the society. Chidi Ogu, a lawyer, describes it as a brazen violation of the rights of women worldwide.

Women groups such as the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) women rights activists and some concerned citizens have always condemned in strong terms, the rising cases of wife battering.

Despite these condemnations and aspersions on perpetrators, the obnoxious trend continues unabated and some times with more responsible members of the society aiding and abetting.

Observers say that traditional beliefs and cultural practices are some of the factors sustaining the social scourge of battering. Some traditions trivialise women to be dispensable, inferior, objects of sexual exploitation and second–class citizens who should be seen but not heard.

It may be argued that this inhuman treatment of the womenfolk is not new. The history of mankind is replete with repeated cases of injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman.

Such justified the Seneca Falls, New York, A declaration of sentiments written about 160 years ago in America as a protest against injustice toward women.

General  battering of a woman is inhuman, into- lerable, insulting and injustice which contradicts the values of the modern civilisation. Battering as a form of domestic violence against women is roundly condemned by both local and international instruments.

According to the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the term “violence against women” can refer to “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”. This violence includes,among other things, “physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family and in the general community, including battering, sexual abuse of female children, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women.

According to the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “violence against women is global in reach, and takes place in all societies and cultures. It affects women no matter what their race, ethnicity, social origin, birth or other status may be.” Radhika Coomaraswamy, former UN Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on Violence Against Women, sees it as “a taboo issue, invisible in society and a shameful fact of life. Amnesty International describes it as today’s “most pervasive human rights challenge”.

Battering in any form is an aberration in our society. No religion preaches it, no organisation professes it and no responsible individual cherishes it therefore making it neither invaluable nor insurmountable as a social scourge.

However, while experts are unanimous that battering and other forms of domestic violence against women leave a trail of physical and psychological trauma on the victims, there seem not to be concensus on the causes. One fact generally accepted is that there are combinations of causes.

Dr. Osita Uwalaka of the Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka says: “To unravel the causes of battering, it is necessary to determine the childhood experiences as well as the present environment of the batterer”.

Another expert, Dr. Eddy Odom, a sociologist and researcher, believes that battering has a family connection. This agrees substantially with Michael Groetsh opinions that: “Most batterers were brought up in domestic ‘war zone”.

According to Mrs Nwuju, a woman activist, “looking at the contributions of the woman to societal development there is no justification for her being treated with hard fist. She makes heroic sacrifices as a housewife, mother, educator, nurse, farmer, bread winner in most cases and career person. All these are geared towards the development of the family and the society at large”.

She bears a glass ceiling where she carries a pregnancy for nine months. This may force her out of school or job, only for the child to bear the father’s name  when born.

Most cultures and traditional practices have been very hostile to the women folk, modernity not withstanding. The proliferation of human rights groups and advocates in the 21st century does not change dramatically their plight. In such setting, male chauvinism is dominant, the woman has no voice, no rights and no inheritance. She is politically marginalised, alienated from the decision- making  process and poverty is given a woman face.

Batterers in a shameless attempt to exonerate themselves claim that their wives provoke the situation and therefore responsible for the actions.

According to an Awake magazine report, it is often claimed that battering serves as a release from anger and depression, a way to take control of the woman and resolve conflicts. To say the least, it is a tension reducer.

In his submission, Mr. Bank Goteh, a teacher, says: “there is no justification for a man to choose brutality as a way to dominate, control, intimidate and subjugate a woman he vowed to love, cherish and behold for the rest of his life”.

In a study carried out in the University of Rhode Island, USA, certain indicators for battering in domestic setting were discovered.. ie: unemployment, drug, alcohol, low income, inter-ethnic and inter- racial marriages and previous involvement in domestic violence.

All these do not tally with the opinions of Julius Aremu, a psychologist and Executive Director of a Lokoja-based NGO on Family and Child’s Welfare (CEFAW). To him battering occurs, maybe where the couple are not formally married but cohabit, the type of job or career of the batterer, lack of qualitative education and the age of the couple in question.

Time has come for concerted efforts to be made towards ending this ugly phenomenon in our society. According to some keen observers, the best way to achieve this is to educate husbands, partners on the need for change of attitude toward women.

It is no exaggeration that there are plethora of legislations locally and internationally to stop the flagrant violations of the rights of women. Unfortunately, laws can not change hearts, where the roots of injustice, prejudice and discrimination lie. Most of our cultural and social values are often based on deep rooted tradition which is a hard nut to crack especially in developing countries..

It is this tradition that makes men believe that women should be used rather than loved, over worked and abused rather than cared for and respected.

In 1995, women activists and leaders of local and international organisations on women’s rights gathered in Beijing, China, under the aegis of World Conference on Women. One of the highlights of the historic meeting was the creation of a platform of action, which declared that only “immediate and collective action can achieve a peaceful, just and humane world where women will be respected, reciprocated and dignified”.

Looking at the present circumstances of women, this is a long way to go. As a way of raising public awareness of the incessant flagrant violations of the rights of women and with a view to addressing it, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation in 1999 declared November 25 of every year as the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

This calls for collaborative efforts between local and foreign groups, rights activities, civil society organisations, institutions and professional bodies toward fashioning new strategies of fighting violence against women. It is one thing to raise awareness, it is another to mobilise for action.

For the women to fully harness her potentials in the positive direction of the global economy, her rights must be promoted and respected and her safety and security guaranteed wherever she finds herself. This must start with the enforcement of local instruments which bring about shedding erroneous perceptions about women and their positions in society.

Any act of battering reported must be fully investigated and culprits adequately punished according to the dictates of the law. Attempts to shield perpetrators should be discouraged no matter who is involved as this is the sure and only way we can build a civilised society.

As the match towards gender equality continues to elicit public sympathy, batterers should be treated as no less than criminals who punch a stranger.

Agi resides in PH.

Friday Agi