The world we inhabit tends to lean towards male chauvinism. For people who are religious, the Holy Books put men as the kings of their castles or domains but it also says that while women should be submissive to their men, they are to be revered, honoured, protected and nursed by these men. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in modern times.
Where is the honour in not just 1, 2 but 6 men viciously raping a defenceless young woman? Where is the honour in compelling an under aged girl into marriage?
Where is the honour in compelling a widow to marry an in-law according to indigenous customs and tradition? Where is the honour in compelling a widow to sleep in the same room with her husband’s corpse or drink water got from bathing his corpse in order to prove her innocence in his death?
Please can someone explain where the honour and dignity lies in these outdated practices?
For hundreds of years women have taken such abusive treatments in their strides for the sake of peace and unity but the frequency of such inhumane acts and negligence of a woman’s fundamental human rights is alarming.
Most times I wonder when men commit such crimes that demean a woman, do they ever stop to think of similar incidents happening to their own women-sisters, mothers, wives, girlfriends?
Do they know or even feel the damage they cause to the person’s psyche?
In my country and with regards to rape cases, they go unreported because when a married woman is raped by her husband (touchy subject) and reports to the police, the typical reply the lady gets: IS HE NOT YOUR HUSBAND?
No one prays for such barbaric acts to befall others but until it happens to you or a close person, you may not comprehend the enormity of infringement of a woman’s rights or any other person’s for that matter. Women are human beings too created as help mates and not as sex slaves, punch bags etc. They are not trying to take over from the men but are demanding for RESPECT earned through years of pain and anguish.
By Elsie E.U. Omubo
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