Swazi women rally against “abuse and inequality”
March 11, 2013 Kenworthy
News Media
We are against “all forms of abuse, inequality,
inadequate justice system and the clashes between traditional laws and
constitutional laws,” a press release issued by the Swaziland Rural Women
Association (SRWA) stated in connection with the celebration of the International
Women’s Day in Swaziland, writes Kenworthy News Media.
According to the SRWA, the event was held “to let the
rural women reassess her value and importance in the society and celebrate her
achievements by highlighting all the major roles that are done by women.”
According to the Swaziland Democracy Campaign, the women
at the event “disseminated information to the people, government and
perpetrators of violence against women. The women [also] demand clarity as to
what is government doing to uplift and empower women in the country. They also
ask men as to what is it that they did to deserve such a hostile treatment from
them.”
The event was attended by over 700, including a wide
array of civil society organisations in Swaziland: Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse, Population Services International, Family Life Association Services, Foundation
For Socio Economic Justice, Swaziland Democracy
Campaign, Swaziland
National Union of Students and Swaziland
National Ex Mine Workers Association.
Women in Swaziland are generally heavily discriminated
against. In Swazi customary law, women in effect have the status of minors and
cannot get a bank loan without the consent of their husbands. Women can also be
fined for wearing trousers by traditional authorities.
Swaziland’s conservative and patriarchal culture is used
to condone widespread violation of women’s rights in Swaziland, even though
Swaziland has signed the Convention
on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and
Swaziland’s
Constitution guarantees women the right to equal treatment with men –
politically, economically and socially.
In addition to the inferior legal standing of women, one
in three females in Swaziland, according to UNICEF,
have “experienced some form of sexual violence as a child”, and nearly two
thirds of 18 to 24 years old women have “experienced some form of sexual
violence in their lifetime”.
Additionally, more than half of the incidents of sexual
violence committed against girls are not reported to anyone, as females in
general are either ”not aware that what they had experienced was abuse” or
”feared abandonment if they told anyone”, and according to Amnesty
International and the US
Department of State, “many men regard rape as a minor offence”. Generally,
there has been a steady rise in violence against women in the past ten years.
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