NIGERIA: Violence Against Women, Hindrance to Democracy - Activist

Gender-based discrimination and violence against women have been identified as Achilles' heel for women's participation in public spheres hence limit their participation in democratic experiment.

Programme Officer of a non-governmental organisation, Gender Awareness Trust (GAT), Miss Linda Sidi, dropped the hint while speaking at a one-day town hall meeting for stakeholders on AU women protocol on violence against women on Women Rights Advancement Protection Alternative (WRAPA) in collaboration with Gender Awareness Trust, yesterday in Kano .

Ms Sidi decried that "Violence against women is a hindrance to every democratic society which aspires social justice and human rights. In virtually all societies and spheres of activity, women are subjects to discriminations or inequality in law."

The activist further explained that, due to negligence of women and their rights in the society, the organisation and its collaborators stood up to protect the rights of women by demanding domestication and implementation of African Union Women's Protocol.

"Women are mostly absent from public forums, leadership positions and decision making processes in Nigeria . This has aggravated inequality and poverty of women in the country, including failure in responsiveness of governance to citizens," she said.

Ms. Sidi explained that, "The Rising Her Voice project is a project that focuses on improving governance and transparency by recognising and increasing the significant contribution of poor women to public life and in promoting their own rights."

She attributed the situation to "voicelesssness" of women, a gap which the projects aims to fill. According to Sidi, "The right to live a dignified life can never be attained unless all basic necessities of life - food, work, housing, health care, education and culture are adequately and equitably available to anyone, male or female."

In her presentation, Hajiya Mairo Bello Garko who is the executive director of the Kano-based Adolescents Health and Information Project (AHIP), submitted that violence against women inflicts physical, emotional and economical problems.

She said, in the process of exerting power on women by men, women are often subjected to "Physical deformity, beaten to death, rape to death, psychological trauma while some grow to be frigid."

Hajiya Garko posited that rape, which is a common occurrence, is a phenomenon that should be face by all concerned persons and institutions. She therefore advocate for stringent laws to punish the perpetrators.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200908200195.html