November 16- 30, 2011
ISSUE 051
A bimonthly newspaper by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service
Punching bag and shield Gender based violence shifts gear as children used to settle marital scores By SHEM SUCHIA The woman’s shrill voice pierced the peace of the early night just when residents of Mushibiriri Village were preparing to go to bed. They listened apprehensively as it became apparent the source of the cries was familiar. For some months now, they had become accustomed to such regular treats when a feuding couple in their midst had bouts of marital disagreements so much so that it had become a spectacle that had lost its thrill. So, initially the villagers dismissed the latest cries as yet another commonplace act of the couple’s quarrel. However, as the woman’s agonising cries continued, the message was foreboding. “Somebody help me! He has killed my child,” the woman lamented. It was apparent she was in grave danger. As the villagers rushed to the scene, the machete-wielding man was already making good his escape into the pitch dark night, faster than they could catch up with him. Behind him, the distraught woman cried uncontrollably. On her hands was a lifeless blood-spluttered body of her three-month old baby girl. Their domestic quarrel had turned tragic with the infant paying the ultimate price. “I blame myself,” the woman cursed even as the speechless neighbours — some nursing a guilty conscience for their delayed action —
tried to comfort her. Moments later what transpired became clearer. “He wanted to cut me and I put the baby in front of him thinking he would not dare hurt our baby,” she explained. The undeterred man fuming with uncontrollable anger went ahead and slashed the infant, its mother escaping only by a whisker after ducking. “He was unhappy that I dissuaded him from marrying another wife. He never liked it that I had given birth to a baby girl while he had wanted a boy,” she explained.
Common practice
Although the man has since been arrested and charged court, it turns out that this is not the first time an incident of such magnitude occurred the same village. The villagers disclosed that hardly a week had passed when another couple had a near fatal confrontation that left their four-month old baby nursing a broken neck and joint dislocation when the father charged after its fleeing mother. She had made good her threat to leave the ‘burden’ of caring for their infant with him. “He grabbed the child from the couch where the mother had dumped it and in anger threw it after her as she made her exit. She ducked and
A woman tries to shield herself from her spouse. Incidences of violence still continue to rein havoc on women even as violence against women is considered a human rights violation. Picture: Reject Correspondent fled as the child hit the hard floor,” said eye witnesses to the incident. The baby has since recovered, but the assailant remains on the run. These incidents of gender based violence are happening just as the world gets set to mark 16 days of activism against gender based
violence. The event starts of November 25 and ends on December 10, the international human rights day. Violence against women and children remain the hallmark of efforts to end this campaign and to symbolically link violence against Continued on page 7
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