Sunday, 14 July 2013 seemed a normal day to me. I woke up with all the hope that Sunday, being a day that most people go to church and prepare for the beginning of the week, would pass without my eyes seeing or my ears hearing any sad news. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I was shocked to see the headlines of the daily paper that said “MAN HACKS WIFE FOR ATTENDING FUNERAL”. After I finished reading the story, my mind was hugely baffled. I could not understand that a normal sensible human being can think of hacking a wife because she went to attend to a funeral. I have grown up believing that marriage is something that keeps a woman and a man as one person despite having different beliefs and ideologies. But today’s story proved me wrong.
Many organizations, both governmental (through the ministry of gender and child welfare) and non-governmental, are doing their best to combat Gender Based Violence. There are many programs that are being implemented both on a national and community level exposing and discouraging gender based violence. It is very sad and disappointing then, that after all these efforts and programs, Malawian women continue to suffer from emotional, psychological and physical abuse that is just devastating and terrifying. Where are we going wrong with these efforts?
I have personally seen many women battling with their lives on hospital beds after being terribly injured by their husbands since I joined Global Health Corps. Therefore, I think that there is a need to put extra effort in the interventions that are being implemented now. We should not relax at all because the current efforts and interventions don’t seem to be doing enough. Fighting Gender based violence should be the job of everyone. It should be fought on a daily basis starting from the family level.
The issues of gender based violence catch the eyes of people only when they are reported in newspapers or on radios. Most of the time, it looks like all is well until the newspapers highlight about it or one personally see the victims in hospital beds. I think this should not be the case. There should be programs targeting everyone everyday to ensure that people are aware of the evil act. The programs should even target children to make them aware of the gender based violence issues as early as possible so that we should have a new crop of citizens without such evil mentally like this man who mercilessly hacked his wife for attending not only a mere funeral but that of a close relative.
Today’s story confirms that more needs to be done beyond economic empowerment for women to end gender based violence. Programs and efforts to change the minds and mentality of some men towards women is one of the solutions particular to cases of today’s nature. Men should really understand that women are human beings who need love, care and respect just like men do. It is very selfish and evil to think that women are objects created for men’s pleasure and nothing more. Women by nature hold societies together. They are a very critical component for the success of any society. Providing a suitable and conducive environment for women to live free of gender-based violence life is the beginning of social, economic and political development for any society.