‘Why would a sane man beat his wife at all? Why would the police release the man because the wife isn’t pressing for legal charges?’

Emobileclinic Trending Issue: Marital Assault

I cannot but ask; driven by what?? I sat down for more than two hours to put myself in this woman’s shoe. Why would a sane man beat his 6 months pregnant wife? Why would a sane man beat his wife at all? Why would the police release the man because the wife isn’t pressing for legal charges?

So many write ups on marital violence got lost in references! One thing that came to me all through is societal responsibility. Society is always careful when it comes to marital violence. According to The Lancet, ‘ 1 in 3 women has experienced either physical or sexual violence from their partner’. It is a major health concern as it has various medical implications. The physical injuries are there, the emotional damage is catastrophic. What about the effects on the children who may be mentally unstable as a result of this. ‘I cried each time daddy is fighting mummy’ says a 7 years boy.

Picture credit:Boniface Nwangu

The plight of these victims are numerous and one might be tempted to ask ‘why don’t they move out?’ In some part of African countries, it still remains a taboo for a woman to leave her husband house. She has to die there! With civilization, time are changing and only few women still have the notion of ‘being buried in husband houses’ but even at that this does not change the frequency of marital violence in our ‘modern world ‘ It has increased the rate of divorce/separation in Africa for sure.! Women assault is happening every day; every minute a woman is being assaulted or threatened to be beaten by her spouse.

The victims most often are helpless. They would have loved to move out but they could not because they are jobless. Most of the victim look up to their husbands for everything. Boniface Mwangu identified the issue of joblessness in her narration of the Kenya woman assault, ‘She is six months pregnant, afraid, jobless and currently admitted at Langata Hospital’

Women empowerment would go a long way to reduce marital violence. Men would respect a woman who contributes to the upkeep of the house in her little way.

Apart from this, some men are just too irresponsible and lack total confidence in their mantle of leadership. Either a woman earns or not isn’t the issue with them. Violence is the only language they understand. In their shallow reasoning, that is the only way to exact authority. They feel words are not working. They feel only beating and threatening do.

Women are very strong emotional but the society should lighten this burden. ‘Although many countries have made substantial progress towards criminalizing violence against women and promoting gender equality, the Series authors argue that governments and donors need to commit sufficient financial resources to ensure their verbal commitments translate into real change’ ,says WHO. Professor Charlotte Watts, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom says “We must work towards achieving gender equality and preventing violence before it even starts.” I personally think gender equality might not work in Africa. It might complicate things because despite inequality that exists, men are still being violence towards their woman.

A strict law protecting every woman should be in place. Most women would not speak out. They would rather cover it up but I am sure a story of one scapegoat would continually ring the bell in the minds of every violent men.