Only five in 100 people surveyed in Swaziland
(eSwatini) said wife-beating was ‘sometimes’ or ‘always justified.’
The results suggest that attitudes are improving in
the kingdom where in a 2015 survey four in ten married women in Swaziland said
their husbands had the right to beat them.
In the new
study Afrobarometer surveyed 34 countries in Africa. Swaziland was among
the best in the survey. The average result across the countries was 28 percent.
Full results of the survey are still to be published.
The survey result runs counter to the experience of women
in Swaziland. A total of 2,068 cases of domestic violence were recorded
in Swaziland between August 2018 and March 2019. There were also 430 cases
of rape reported.
In traditional culture in Swaziland women are owned by their men
(husbands or fathers). In the 2015 survey called the
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Comparative Report a number reasons for
wife-beating were given by women 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’.
The APA news agency reported at the time, ‘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.”’
In June
2008 it was reported that the National
Democratic and Health Survey found that 40 percent of men in Swaziland said
it was all right to beat women. The same year, the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) found that the status of some women in Swaziland was so low that
they were practically
starved at meal times, because men folk ate first and if there was not
enough food for everyone, the women went without.
In 2013 a 317-page document called The Indigenous Law and Custom of the
Kingdom of Swaziland (2013) was presented to King Mswati III who rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. It said that under
Swazi Law and Custom a husband can legally rape his wife or his lover. Under
Chapter 7, which addresses offences (emacala) in Swaziland, rape is said to be
committed only if the woman forced is not the man’s wife or lover.
In October 2017 four of six married women
interviewed on the streets of Mbabane by the Swazi News said their
husbands had the right to rape them. It reported some wives said their husbands
deserved sex whenever they wanted.
It is not known how man husbands force themselves on
their wives but recorded figures on rape have shown Swaziland to have the
fourth highest rate of rape in the world. In 2015, a
report from a US organisation ABCNewspoint stated there were 77.5
registered cases of rape among 100,000 people.
See also
Swazi
culture and wife beating
Customary
law lets husbands rape wives
No comments:
Post a Comment