Wife-beating a source of pride for some in Mauritania

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) — Salimata was always told she should be proud to come from a family of wife beaters.

“You’re the daughter of a woman whose husband broke her hands. Your grandmother’s legs were fractured by her husband. You must be loved,” Salimata said, citing her mother’s words.

The 19- year- old woman from Mauritania’s Soninké ethnic group, married to a man who also beats her, said she taught herself to believe what her mother told her.

“I felt like an animal that had to be disciplined,” she said. “As time passed, I came to believe that my husband beats me only when he is at the peak of his love for me.”

Mauritania, a poor, mainly Muslim nation, has deep social and racial divides, each group with its unique marriage norms.

While divorce is widely accepted among the majority Moors, it is almost impossible among the Mauritanians of African descent such as the Soninké and Fulani.

And while domestic violence is frowned upon among the Moors, of Arab and Berber descent, it’s seen as an act of love and an accepted practice for Soninkés, said social researcher Sidi Boyada, an advisor at the ministry of social affairs.

Aichetou Samba is a 60-yearold Fulani grandmother who lives in a modest house in a Nouakchott neighborhood.

“In the past, our girls used to get married at eight years of age, and they usually married their cousins,” she said, coddling one of her grandchildren.

Mauritanian law stipulates “sanity” and “marriageable age” as preconditions for getting married, leaving the door open for early marriage by giving parents the right to decide.

Wearing a colorful scarf that shows her Fulani heritage, Samba smiled and said: “A Fulani woman always takes pride in being beaten by her husband,” and often shares her experiences with other women to show off his love for her.

“This is one of our traditions,” she said. “We see wifebeating as a common and normal practice, which sometimes includes pouring cold water on the wife’s body.”

Sociology professor Ousmane Wagué at the University of Nouakchott, also a Fulani, said Mauritanian women of African descent accept being beaten to avoid divorce, convincing themselves their husbands’ violence is a sign of love.

“As the popular song goes: my legs were broken and I stayed home,” he told Reuters.

Mariem Jallo, a 25-year-old Fulani woman, is an exception. She has been divorced for five years.

“My husband used to constantly beat me. He passionately loved me, but this didn’t stop him from hitting me for very trivial reasons,” she said.