IAC’s Regional Workshop Ends in Addis Abba
Friday 14th December 2007

(Continuation)

Also, even though it’s men who make cultural laws, including those concerning women, it’s usually fellow women who enforce those harmful practices, especially the widowhood rites. Some widows are made to suffer more than others if their in-laws feel that they hadn’t been nice, generous and cooperative to the extended family while their husbands were alive. The media has to meet with elders at the grassroots level such as market women and women’s societies and make them aware of the dangers these harmful practices pose to girls and women. Some governments and lawmakers in some States in Nigeria were successfully lobbied by the media so that a law against the FGM could be passed in those States. So, in Edo and Cross River States, female circumcision has been banned by law and people are complying, even in the rural areas.

Some years ago, the National Association of Women Journalists Enugu State branch, successfully lobbied the government and law-makers of that State to pass a bill banning harmful widowhood rites and disinheritance. I did a write-up commending those media ladies for their action, but urged them to go meet with the elders and the women in the rural areas and coax them into seeing how harmful these practices are to their women. This will allow them to hold meetings with their people and get them to comply with the government directives. There’s no way government officials or law enforcement agencies can go from hamlet to hamlet, seeing that people comply, especially when some of them, in spite of the law, are not convinced themselves that those practices should be stopped. Those ladies agreed that they needed to go create awareness among the rural dwellers.

For the Media to successfully play its role in the campaign to eliminate FGM and other harmful traditional practices, it should not limit its role to educating and informing society to the urban areas only. It should go and interact with people at the grassroots because exploring and questioning issues can go a long way towards urging society to abandon these practices.   “ Make it a point to avail itself of the relevant data and statistics concerning victims of these harmful-practices and the areas where they are prevalent, so that they can know where to focus attention. In Nigeria, female circumcision is carried on mainly among the ethnic groups in the South-south, while the harmful widowhood rites and disinheritance are common mostly in the South-east and the South-south. Early marriage is found mostly in the northern parts of the country and sometimes in a part of the South-south. - Create an awareness everywhere in the country of these harmful traditional practices and their terrible consequences in the lives of women, through regular write-ups in the print media and news items and drama on radio and television. - Campaign seriously for their elimination and encourage those in power to do their best to make this possible. 

Reach out to young people in their environment, (schools, higher institutions of learning, social and professional clubs) through interaction and write-ups, with the aim of re-educating them about these obnoxious practices. They, in turn, can help influence their parents, friends and relatives positively, in the campaign. - Convince those in the rural areas that these practices are harmful and retrogressive and should be abandoned. Actually, it’s the response of these people that will determine the success of the campaign to eliminate the practices. If they respond positively and agree to discard them, this would be more effective than any law passed by the government. Journalists should regularly feed the government and the general public with information about the progress made in the campaign, so that other ethnic groups, State and Local Governments, would be encouraged to abolish these practices.

NOTE.

Early marriage is believed to be very common in Africa, but people who practice it have a different reason for doing it. Some have the belief that when a girl is married at an early stage she will be very fluent with it. Some also do it because they want their girls to be found as virgins, as being a virgin is very important in African society. In The Gambia many people believe in early marriage but they do it at least to girls at the age of fifteen and above. But believe me in some African countries like Ethiopia, some give their daughters hand in marriage at a very young age, imagine an eight year old girl being a wife. I saw this horrible case in Addis Ababa; Meserete Dubale got married at the age of eight without her consent and spent eight years childless in marriage.

In an interview with her, she said since she got married up until now she is suffering because, “my husband never solves my financial needs, so I used to go out to seek people’s help in order to have some money. He beat me up and slashed all of my body”. Asked whether she will go back to the man when she recovers and is discharged from hospital she replied in the negative.

According to the Executive Director of Inter African Committee (IAC), Mrs Berhane Ras Work, she feels sorry seeing a little girl being forced to marry and later encountering such humiliation. The man, she said was with the police but should be in jail.

Mrs Ras Work promised that her institution will shelter the girl and give her some money to do petty trading and they will try to get to the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association to stand for her.

Mrs Ras Work finally advised parents to send their girls to school in order to get education, skills and empowerment. So that forced and early marriage can be stopped the government implemented a law which limits to age of marriage to a minimum of 18. It’s easy to declare and adopt policy but the implementation of this policy is what is meaningful and can have a positive impact on women’s lives, she emphasised.     

(To be continued)