About 80 percent of Zambian wives find it acceptable to be beaten by their husbands "as a form of chastisement", according to the latest Zambia Demographic Health Survey.

Out of 5,029 women interviewed countrywide, 79 percent said they should be beaten if they went out without their husband's permission. Sixty-one percent said a beating was acceptable if they denied their husbands sex, while 45 percent said a beating was in order if they cooked 'bad' food.

Compounding the abuse was the culture of silence around domestic violence. "This is an aberration - and women are making an abnormality normal," said National AIDS Council director of programmes, Dr Alex Simwanza, when he recently met traditional leaders to urge their support in fighting gender-based violence.

"Zambian wives are living in a sorry state. As far as they are concerned they can be beaten for almost anything. This is a frightening phenomenon," he noted.

Simwanza said most women surveyed did not believe they had sexual or reproductive rights. Quoting the survey, he said 88 percent of women felt their husbands could have sex with them just after giving birth, while 67 percent said they would have sex even though they did not want it.
Simwanza blamed the submissive attitude uncovered in the poll on what is taught to girls during puberty rites.

But custodians of tradition have refused to accept the blame. Gertrude Mulande, a traditional marriage counsellor, believes wife-beating is a "natural consequence" of male-female relationships and must be seen in perspective. She says there is 'chastisement' and 'violence' - two separate issues.

Her organisation, "alangizi", which is made up of traditional counsellors, works closely with community leaders and the police to sensitise women on domestic violence "within the confines of cultural values".

"Yes we teach young girls to expect to be slapped or hit lightly when they err as a form of chastisement, and we also tell them to keep their marital problems within their family circles - but we do not teach them to accept violent beatings, neither do we teach them to suffer in silence," Mulande told IRIN.

Mulande said in the past women were married off at 16 years or even younger to an older man, who had the right to act as 'chastiser', but it was frowned upon for that to extend to a severe beating. Traditionally, if a woman was badly abused, the matter was taken to family elders and resolved, because men were counselled not to hit their wives as though they were fighting with another man.

"The extended family has become extinct, causing women to air dirty linen in public, and chastisement has turned to brutality. That is not our fault," Mulande said.

Mulande, whose husband had slapped her "a couple of times" during 30 years of marriage, argued that although the statistics revealed that beatings were occurring, this should not be interpreted to mean women were being brutalised in their homes.

One diplomat IRIN interviewed, based in the capital, Lusaka, agreed. He said domestic fights were common in homes and, even as educated and enlightened as he was, admitted to "roughing up" his wife a couple of times in their 19 years together. He did not know of any wife who could say she had never been slapped or beaten by her husband. (...)

This is the kind of perception that raises the ire of the national Women's Lobby group, who define violence as any form of force used against women. (...) "The fact that women are admitting that they expect to be beaten for perceived wrongs means we [the lobby] have a long way to go in sensitisation."

Equally perturbed is President Levy Mwanawasa, who recently said the country needed to examine its cultural values that legitimised violence against women. "Any form of domestic violence is a violation human rights and should be stopped," he warned. (...)

December 3, 2003 – UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 
http://allafrica.com/stories/200312030063.html

8 - Timor : Fighting Domestic Violence in Timor-Leste

(...) Over 40 per cent of all reported cases to the police are about domestic violence. The International Rescue Committee recently interviewed 317 women and found that three out of four had experienced some form of gender-based violence over the past 12 months.

Today, everywhere you go in Timor-Leste, you are likely to come across a poster, a t-shirt or a leaflet with the message: "Stop Domestic Violence!" Turn on the radio, and you may hear an episode of the locally produced family drama "Rua do Repolho", raising awareness of the issue through typical situations. Attending mass, you can pick up a leaflet stating that the Bible does not justify abuse and offering the Church’s help to victims of violence.

(...) In a country where 90 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic, the Church is one important ally. At the Centre for Peace and Development, Sister Bernadita stresses that the Church’s representatives must never treat an issue of domestic violence lightly, and should ask themselves whether they give women the impression, even unconsciously, that it is their duty to endure beatings for the sake of their marriage.

A drama group can also be a powerful messenger. Starting on 25 November, the Bibi Bulak (Crazy Goat) ensemble will tour Timor-Leste’s 13 districts with a new play addressing domestic violence. They have made TV spots and radio plays dramatizing the issue in recognizable, everyday situations and demonstrating peaceful and respectful solutions to conflict.

When victims of violence call the police for help, it is critical that they be taken seriously. UNFPA and other partners have worked to include domestic violence in the curriculum of the Police Academy, and to provide training to all officers. A set of cards that police officers can carry in their pockets outlines the steps to take when responding to domestic violence. The cards stress the need to document evidence, like bruises, to get the victim out of harm’s way immediately and to let her know of available support and counselling.

During the training session, one participant says it will be difficult to end domestic violence, because: "Here, it is as common to beat your wife as it is to beat your water buffalo. It’s just the way it is." The instructor, Ms. Soares, is not intimidated: "Domestic violence is no different from other forms of physical assault. People know that if they assault their friend or neighbour, it is a crime. Just as they can control that anger, men must learn to control anger towards their wives. The culture must change. The law is clear and applies to everybody," she says.

Maria de Jesus Maia Lourdes, a mother of four, agrees. When discussing the need for family planning in a meeting with other mothers, she says: "You know, to be able to space our pregnancies would also help reducing domestic violence. Poverty, no job, yet another mouth to feed—it increases the tension and the violence. It is a big problem here in Timor-Leste. I know from personal experience." She adds, "I don't want other women to experience what I have been through. It has to stop."

Says Dan Baker, the UNFPA Representative in Timor-Leste: "There can be no sustainable development or consolidated peace unless the goal of eliminating gender-based violence is achieved."

Kristin Hetle
http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=395

***

9 - Inde : Prostituées divines

Les devadasis, «esclaves de la divinité» vouées à une déesse hindoue, ne peuvent épouser un homme: elles incarnent l'amour libre et sans limites. Mais ces femmes, autrefois sacrées, sombrent aujourd'hui dans la plus vile prostitution. 
 
Irawati* ne se souvient pas très bien. Elle fait un geste las lorsqu'il s'agit d'évoquer les circonstances qui l'ont désignée, elle, pour devenir prostituée sacrée. Si le souvenir est sûrement douloureux, il semble surtout remonter à un âge, cinq ou six ans, auquel la jeune femme ne pouvait comprendre ce que signifiait pour elle devenir l'esclave de la déesse Yelamma, symbole de la fertilité et incarnation de la déesse mère: donner son corps par l'entremise d'un acte religieux. Irawati n'était qu'une enfant, ayant grandi dans le milieu fruste et illettré des intouchables d'un village du sud de l'Inde, où chacun a surtout le nez sur la question de sa propre survie; Irawati était une enfant timide, si l'on en juge par la manière dont elle ne cesse aujourd'hui de rajuster pudiquement son sari vert sur ses cheveux...