Alcohol not only reason for abuse

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: STRESSFUL BEING SHUT IN

Women find it difficult to find privacy to report their circumstances.

The recent increase in gender-based violence cannot solely be attributed to the selling of alcohol, but is a part of an ongoing problem, worsened by the current lockdown, says a gender research expert.

Professor Antje Schuhmann from Wits School of Social Sciences said lockdowns had generated a global spike in male violence against women and in femicides because they were likely to have impacted on domestic relationships between the men and women.

Under the lockdown, women found themselves shut in with a perpetrator, most likely a family member, a husband or boyfriend.

Moments of privacy to reach out for help were unavailable, and for many women the state-imposed house arrests made it difficult to escape.

Schuhmann said the killings of Tshegofatso Pule in Gauteng and Naledi Phangindawo in Mossel Bay had to be seen in light of generally very high levels of gender-based violence, which are also described as a long and ongoing “state of emergency” in SA.

It was too easy to attribute the attacks on women at this time as alcohol induced after the recent opening of selling of liquor.

“So far we have no data which speaks to gender-based violence during the different levels of the lockdown,” she said. “Violence against women has many historic and social components and cannot be reduced to one factor only.”

“We do know that in many countries, the abuse of women and also of children has increased tremendously during the often stressful experience of being locked up, maybe losing work, mourning and general insecurity.

“Different countries have tested different campaign formats in order to reach out to women during the rare times they are in public spaces, such as advertising helplines in pharmacies or supermarkets.

“Generally, women who would like to report their abuse have to face many hurdles.

“However, victimisation is particularly easy during lockdown as the access to state or civil society institutions is particularly limited,” Schuhmann said.

Although violence against women was often portrayed as so-called “stranger-danger”, the sad reality was that it was much more likely that women were abused by men they knew and loved.

Under lockdown they were unable to report it to authorities.

Social sciences and communications graduate Zizipho Naki said SA needed to first address individual psychological and patriarchal problems if it was to overcome gender-based violence.

The country still embraced patriarchy.

“The problem is how boys are raised; boys are taught to be boys and that they must be rough and must not cry. Instead they must bottle up their emotions and never have to face them.

“They cannot communicate [effectively] and their way of communication is [through] physical strength,” she said.

“Men view any expression of emotion as a weakness. They are told crying is a woman’s thing. They are unable to tell what is inside them and bottle up those emotions to become something that one day could explode.

“That’s where the issue is, that communication is embraced in women but not in men. They are taught to act in a certain way from a very young age,” Naki said.

To fix patriarchy, SA needed to fix how men were raised and they must face their childhood trauma where they were taught to resolve matters by violence.

Not being able to face childhood trauma raised mental issues which must be confronted. Schuhmann said: “It is of particular importance that the educational system must be reformed in order to empower girls, as well as boys.

“In addition, men in the public and political spheres must be held accountable and not let off the hook when disrespectful and violent towards women or queer people – simply, all those they consider as not equal to them”.

Naki said: “Destroying the patriarchal system means destroying how boys are raised, redefining what a man is and how men and boys view women.

“It means a man sees a woman as an equal, someone they respect and not somebody who could be bullied.”

Where there was no patriarchy, women would be able to feel free to go to a police station to report abuse without being looked down upon by a male police officer.

“Destroying the patriarchal system would mean our country prioritised women’s rights and gender-based violence was seen as a bad thing,” said Naki.

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A man sees a woman as an equal, someone they respect