Is violence really considered in Eswatini?
Madam,
:hether attacked by a lover or a stranger, the undeniable truth is that women are under constant threat at home, on the streets, at night, during the day, or even on campus at university or college. 'espite the fact that not all men are violent, male violence can and does happen to all women. There is no specific time or place when women feel most fearful of attack, it happens anytime and anywhere.
But instead of talking about why women are the constant receivers of such brutality again, let us talk about why it keeps happening, again and again.
SOLUTIONS
Because honestly, we’ve talked about this, we’ve written petitions, proposed solutions and waited in anticipation for law enforcers to act and nothing. In the meantime men ± most men ± are given free reign to behave however they wish, as most men who rape, harass, and abuse are not punished. All the above examples are of men who’ve killed their lovers because they’ve either ‘cheated’ or moved on. A clear pattern is presented here ± male entitlement. Therefore, one of the solutions to this predicament is a clear cultural shift that addresses male entitlement over women’s bodies an end to destructive masculinity and, more broadly, gendered socialisation that says men are actors, whereas women are passive recipients of men’s ‘action’.
As a result of this male entitlement, the country seems to not have taken women rights seriously as it has showed no progress in preventing it or punishing men for violence towards women and girls. Men have beaten their wives and partners for centuries, with no real retribution from the criminal justice system.
IMPROVEMENT
There is no doubt that there is still room for improvement in the actions government is taking in the protection of the rights of women and girls. I do not know how many stories I’ve read in the newspaper where, after leaving her husband for whatever reason, the court ordered a woman to return to the husband and ‘restore conjugal rights’. Am I wrong when I say the courts of (swatini worry more about a man receiving sex than they worry about the safety of the woman" Most abuse cases are not taken seriously until the victim is dead, and even then, she becomes just another statistic, and that not only worries me but also leaves me wondering ± is violence really considered an atrocity in the country"
Nomsa