Ali: Examine male behaviour
The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) has condemned the alleged brutal murder of a woman in Suva on Thursday.
“How many more women need to die this way,” centre coordinator Shamima Ali said. “For us all as Fijians, we have to say enough is enough and all get on the same page and recognise and agree that patriarchy embedded in society is the cause of violence against women and girls.
“We need to examine male behaviour and society’s responsibility.”
Ms Ali said Fiji has one of the highest rates of domestic violence where 64 per cent of women went through sexual, physical, and emotional violence.
“This is a gross violation of women’s human rights. Men who use violence are our neighbours, our family members and our partners,” Ms Ali said.
“We must start treating this as a systemic problem, instead of seeing this as an issue caused by a few bad men.”
She said a research conducted by the centre revealed that for the past 10 years, an average of six women a year had been killed because of domestic violence.
Ms Ali said these were statistics compiled by the media or police.
“What about the cases we only hear about and are not reported or even heard about. “We don’t know the true numbers. Femicide or the murder of women is a growing concern in
Fiji, and it needs to be addressed urgently.
“We need to stop treating gender equality, gender discrimination as sensitive issues and pussyfooting around leaders, especially male leaders so that they don’t get offended.” but it would take time to take effect, especially when a lot of effort is being put into getting various community settings to agree to the concept of equality between men and women, respecting women and girls’ human rights.
“Call the National Domestic Violence toll-free helpline 1560 which is available for 24 hours,” she said.