Africanews October 2000 -Malawi: Domestic violence rampant in rural Malawi

[Africanews <ramalkandy@iol.it>]

AFRICANEWS - News and Views on Africa from Africa
Issue 55 - October 2000
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+


Malawi
Domestic violence rampant in rural Malawi

Despite efforts by human rights activists to liberate women from all
forms of gender discrimination and domestic violence, women in the
rural parts of Malawi continue to suffer severely in silence, says a
recent report by a local human rights non-government organisation.

Women's Rights
By Brian Ligomeka
(1,337 words)

Research by Women's Voice reveals that rural women are beaten, raped,
and abducted, while some have their property grabbed upon the death of
their husbands.

Women's Voice, based in Malawi's capital Blantyre but with outstations
in 25 rural areas, is made up of women rights activists, lawyers,
educators, and researchers who seek to eliminate discrimination
against women, educate women about their rights, and integrate them
into all development endeavors.

The research, conducted between January-March 2000, shows that
domestic violence is widespread in rural areas because human rights
activists and gender fighters do not reach rural women.

The report reveals that 40 percent of married women in rural areas are
victims of domestic violence. That percentage might be higher in areas
where husbands pay bride price in the form of cattle, especially in
northern Malawi, because the husbands wrongly considers the wife as
part of his property, says the report. He feels that he has bought her
with, in some cases, six herds of cattle.

The problem is worsened perpetuated by the fact that most women are
not in formal employment. They depend entirely on the income earned by
their husbands.

Besides unemployment, domestic violence is also blamed on high levels
of ignorance.

"These rural women are victims of ignorance for human rights because
gender fighters have not yet reached them," says the report.  And,
"despite the campaigns carried out so far to fight human rights
abuses, little seems to be achieved, as many women continue to suffer
violence of their rights."

Women's Voice decided to carry out the research on the magnitude of
domestic violence to identify areas where it can launch civic
education programmes on human rights.

The research was conducted through random interviews in some districts
in Malawi, gleaned from court reports on women whose property was
grabbed.

Emmie Chanika, a human rights activist working for Civil Liberties
Committee based in Blantyre, said that in the past, women's NGOs tried
to teach women about their rights through electronic and print media.
They, for instance, used National Radio as a tool to reach many women
countrywide at the same time.

"These efforts proved ineffective in the sense that some radio
programmes targetting the women were aired in the morning when women
were busy involved in gardening," says Chanika. "At night rural, women
hardly listen to the radio due to the fact that in most rural areas,
there is no electricity.

"In other instances, the programmes were broadcast in English; with
Malawi's high illiteracy rate, that also proved ineffective," Chanika
says, adding that the only solution is to reach women face-to-face in
their communities.

The research findings indicate that human rights organisations in
Malawi have a long way to go to achieve their objectives with respect
to women and children's rights, because the majority of women have not
yet been reached by civic education programmes on rights.

"Women continue being discriminated against on the basis of gender,
age, and cultural beliefs," says the report. "Discrimination has been
accepted as a way of life or the normal way of behaving.....and that's
when the human rights activists should intervene."

"In most marriages, women are made to feel responsible when things go
wrong in their marriage," says the report. "They think theirs is a
task of making men feel good. Men often make women feel guilty and
responsible for the violence that men inflict upon women."

The report says the root causes of some of these problems are based on
customs passed on through generations that do not benefit the society.

Veronica Kamanga, Women's Voice research officer, says domestic
violence is rampant in Malawi due to a number of factors including
high illiteracy levels among women, and poverty. According to the
National Statistics Office, illiteracy among women in rural areas of
Malawi is pegged at about 60 per cent, while about 70 per cent of
Malawians in rural areas live below the poverty line.

A weak capacity on the part of NGOs is another contributing factor.
Most NGOs are staffed by few full-time individuals - usually less than
15 full-time employees - and lack cars and other resources to aid them
in travelling to rural areas. Financial resources to assist women who
are victims of domestic violence to take legal action against
perpetuators are also lacking.

Kamanga says many rural women are unemployed or underemployed and have
little money. Many women are reluctant to break away from their brutal
husbands because they are afraid of losing their house, the furniture,
and all the things they own together.

Women continue to suffer even when their violent husbands die,
observes Kamanga. She says they are forced to marry their
brothers-in-law and get victimised not because they do not have the
power to say no but because they do not know they have the right to
refuse.

If they refuse to marry their brothers-in-law, the property women own
with their deceased husbands is grabbed from them. Because they cannot
manage to go to urban centres and hire lawyers, women bow down to the
needs of their brother-in-laws to avoid losing wealth they have
accumulated.

Kamanga also observes that women are limited in decision-making and
power sharing because they are perceived by society as being weak and
unable to handle some tasks that are thought to be for men.

Of Malawi's 10 million people, 5.2 million are women, of whom 80 per
cent live in rural areas. This fact should motivate gender activists
to identify rural areas as their targets for civic education on women
rights, says Kamanga.

"The worst forms of traditional customs that impinge on women rights
are practised in villages in rural areas," she says. "So targetting
women in civic education on their rights is very important."

Dr. Vera Chirwa, executive director of Women's Voice, says the main
problems that prevent her organisation from penetrating many rural
areas are financial constraints and lack of human capacity.

"We need money to cover transport costs, and to train trainers who can
go into the rural areas to civic-educate women," says Chirwa. "Most
trainers are not willing to work on a voluntary basis and it is
difficult for our NGO to raise money for salaries for many trainers -
after all we depend on donations."

Many women in rural areas hardly report their sufferings to police or
the courts. But all is not well even for those in urban areas who
report to police or take legal action against their husbands, as
courts take a long time to handle their cases.

A group of Malawian women - headed by Women and Law In Southern
Africa, Malawi Chapter, an organisation that advocates respect for
women rights and fight against discriminatory laws - is urging the
government to set up a family court where marital matters will be
settled. The group says the establishment of a family court will
reduce the huge caseload of the existing court system, and enable
family problems to receive the special attention they deserve.

Seodi White, national coordinator for Women and Law in Southern
Africa, Malawi Chapter, says Malawi currently has no mechanism through
which family issues can be taken up from the lower courts to the
highest court in the country.

"We are tired of seeing women suffer while waiting for their cases to
be handled by courts," White says.

Members of this group of women advocating for the family court's
establishment include government officials, legal practitioners,
representatives of non-governmental organisations, and representatives
from the University of Malawi.

Dunstain Mwaungulu, a Malawi High Court judge, supports the women's
idea. "There are many cases that we are supposed to handle, such as
cases of murder, armed robbery and political," says Mwaungulu. "Now if
family courts are established, our work load will be lighter."

However, not everyone is enthusiastic about the idea of a family
court.

"I don't see any reason for the establishment of another type of
court," says John Manga, a businessman in Blantyre. "It will be
expensive and will require extra manpower which could be allocated to
other resources."