MORE SEX CASES AGAINST WOMEN

Nearly 500 women in Swaziland had been sexually assaulted in the period January to July 2017, according to police reports.

But this is nothing new in the kingdom where women are routinely treated as second class citizens.

In a media release Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Khulani Mamba said 466 sexual violence cases against women had been reported across Swaziland. Of these 237 were rape cases, 98 statutory rape and there were 24 reported cases of attempted rape.

In 2015 a survey conducted in Swaziland suggested four in 10 women believe that a husband was justified in beating his wife because he is the head of the household. 

The APA news agency said at the time a demographic health survey called the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Comparative Report gave a number reasons for wife-beating which included; ‘if she refused to have sex with him, if she argued with him, if she went out without telling him, if she neglected the children and if she had sex with other men’.

APA reported, ‘Silindelo Nkosi, the Communication and Advocacy Officer for Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) said, “These beliefs of justifying abuse have increased to the worst rate resulting in more young women dying in the hands of their lovers or husbands.”’

It added, ‘Clinical Psychologist Ndo Mdlalose describes this as an abusive mentality where men also tend to claim they are correcting their women by beating them.’

The world famous medical journal, the Lancet in 2009 reported that one in three girls in Swaziland had experienced sexual violence by the age of 18, according to a study.

Sexual violence was defined as forced intercourse; coerced intercourse; attempted unwanted intercourse; unwanted touching; and forced touching. 

The most common perpetrators of the first incident of sexual violence were men or boys from the girl’s neighbourhood or boyfriends or husbands. Over a quarter of all incidents of sexual violence occurred in the respondent’s own home, with a fifth occurring at the home of a friend, relative or neighbour. 

In June 2008 it was reported that the National Democratic and Health Survey found that 40 percent of men in Swaziland said it is all right to beat women. The same year, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that the status of some women in Swaziland is so low that they are practically starved at meal times, because men folk eat first and if there is not enough food for everyone, the women must go without.

Women, who under traditional Swazi law are treated as children and are in effect owned by their husbands or fathers, were expected to live lives devoted to their men and families. A report on the State of the Population in Swaziland said that Swazi women were responsible for childbirth, raising the children and taking care of the entire family.

Women are expected to give their husbands sex on demand and those who refuse have been blamed for men who rape children. 

See also

SWAZI CULTURE LETS WOMEN STARVE

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2009/04/swazi-culture-lets-women-starve.html

TWISTED SWAZI MEN RAPE CHILDREN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/twisted-swazi-men-rape-children.html

SHOCKING LIVES FOR SWAZI WOMEN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2008/06/shocking-lifes-for-swazi-women.html