Tackling gender violence

Zimbabwe's women are doubly disadvantaged by the country's four-year-old economic crisis. They are not only expected to manage dwindling, inflation-hit household budgets, but many are also victims of a corresponding rise in domestic violence. "We see an average of 10 new clients a day - and of these an average of three are seeking peace orders in matters of domestic violence, and some of the reasons have to do with financial issues," Emilia Muchawa of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association told IRIN. The Musasa Project, which seeks to empower abused women through support groups and counselling, has seen a steep rise in women using its counselling services, from 3,259 in 2001 to 4,338 in 2002. "It is difficult to say why there is an increase of visits to our premises. A percentage of the reasons could be attributed to our awareness programmes, and the other percentage to economic hardships and shrinking of resources, which leads to tension in the home and difficulties in negotiating resource control," said Musasa Project director Sheila Mahere. Attempts to deal with the problem of domestic violence are increasingly centring on issues of power and control, and how men see their masculinity. Padare, a men's group formed in 1993, seeks to tackle the issue from a male perspective, but admits there are problems in promoting a message of gender sensitivity in a society where men have traditionally held power. Chaired by Jonah Gokova, Padare addresses issues related to sex, HIV/AIDS and masculinity, hoping to raise awareness among men of the "need to behave in a way which does not endanger the health and rights of women", Gokova explained. Outreach programmes have included engaging men in Zimbabwe's bastions of manliness - the beer halls on Saturday afternoons. Although "there are some among the men who believe that their manhood is being compromised, and that the oppression of women is God-ordained", Gokova insisted that an increasing number of men are beginning to talk about gender equality without shame. "When you interrogate masculinity, you discover that the various forms of violence stem from the pressure men come under in trying to prove their manhood. So we aim to get them to appreciate that domestic violence and rape are not natural but criminal," Gokova said. Padare's outreach programmes also target the boy child. "Some boys talk like married men, using all kinds of possessive language but, through our work in schools and clubs, we have created a mass of boys willing to work with girls on equal terms. Young boys are growing to be men and they need to be a different type of man to the ones around them," said Gokova. At the other end of the problem of male violence are the women who visit the Musasa Project. Mahere says about 100 women pass through the doors of the centre each month, but there can be some "really bad days", like the Monday after a public holiday. The Musasa Project has two temporary shelters for women, one in the capital, Harare, and one in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. They are soon to have a halfway house where women can take refuge while seeking legal action. Through the project, women have been able to obtain maintenance rulings in the courts, while victims of abuse have won restraining orders. Where this has failed, Musasa has sought to empower the woman "to make informed decisions, and to increasingly become aware of the alternatives open to her, such as a new job and a new way of life", said Mahere. She is skeptical of attempts to engage serious male offenders and help them see the error of their ways. "It hasn't worked anywhere. Even if an attempt is made to rehabilitate him, he goes back to his old ways once that period is over because he enjoys power and control too much. So, really, it's better to spend more resources building up and empowering the woman to stop her from becoming a statistic." Gokova, however, believes that behaviour stems from the process of socialisation and can be changed. "There is nothing natural about it, and if they are provided with the possibility of change and they take that responsibility, then they can change. But if they come to believe that their behaviour is the result of illness, they will be allowed to get away with their stupid behaviour, because they will say it's an illness and therefore not their responsibility," he commented. While the reasons for domestic violence are debated, Zimbabwe may soon have a law on the statute books to help address the problem. The proposed Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill will make abuse a serious punishable offence. One of its stipulations says that a person can be arrested for threatening abuse, or on suspicion of having committed the offence.