GBV surge under the cover of silence in rural communities
Siphiwe Gumede 39 says her (20) year marriage has been characterised by incessant beating and relentless insults from her husband. Siphiwe now suffers from hearing impairment and has physical injuries all over her body from the beating. Her self-esteem is very low and she says she no longer has any friends because other women in the community are afraid of being caught up in the violence.
In one of the violent episodes, Siphiwe’s husband beat her up and she suffered a broken foot. Siphiwe says there was no apparent reason for the beating.
“I was at home with my five children. It was late in the evening when my husband arrived. He started to accuse me of having extra marital relationships. He took a torch and started to check in the yard. He saw some bicycle marks on the ground and accused me of bringing a boyfriend who had come on the bicycle. I did not know anything about those marks but my husband was incensed. The children were all crying and pleading with him to stop,” says Siphiwe.
In another incident, Siphiwe says her husband beat her up so badly that she had to be hospitalised. She suffered damage to the right ear resulting in the impairment. One now needs to shout loudly when talking to her.
Siphiwe, who lives in the peri-urban impoverished Mazwi village, 30 kilometres south west of Bulawayo metropolitan province in Zimbabwe, says the prevalence of domestic violence in her village is on the increase and community members do not take any efforts to engage law enforcement agents.
“I just pray that my husband stops beating me. During the first days I thought that we were still young and the violence would stop when we have children but nothing has changed. I now feel helpless because I have five children. How will I support my children if I report him to the police and he is jailed? Where will I take the children if I leave my husband? I hope that one day he will change his behaviour,” says Siphiwe.
Incidentally, Mazwi village is located less than four kilometres from Khami maximum prison, a major correctional facility for offenders in Zimbabwe.
Siphesihle Ndlovu, 35 is another survivor of gender based violence in Mazwi village. Siphesihle says her husband struggles to provide food for his family yet he refuses to allow her to work so that she can also contribute to family income.
“We are struggling and battling to put food on the table for our 6 children. He can barely make ends meet yet in light of it all the poverty, he still maintains that I should not be involved economic activities. Many women are supporting their families through buying and selling vegetables and other commodities. I can do that to support my family but my husband is adamant that I should just be at home,” says Siphesihle.
Despair manifests clearly on Siphesihle’s face. Her eyes have a distant look, with no sign of hope. There is an atmosphere of defeat around her.
Siphesihle says when her husband gets paid he keeps all the money to himself. Siphesihle has to beg her husband to buy basic items such as food. Most of the time Siphesihle and her children go hungry while the husband spends money on beer.
“We have to wait for him to bring relish home in the evening. On many occasions my children go to bed without food. They do not have enough clothes and they are always dirty. I am ashamed of going out to meet people because I do not have proper clothes,’ says Siphesihle with tears brimming in her eyes.
Like Spiphiwe, Siphesihle is also afraid that if she reports her husband to the authorities, their marriage will collapse and she will be left to care for the children on her own. Community leaders in Mazwi village are concerned about the increasing incidents of Gender Based Violence in their village. Jesta Sibanda, 63 is the village head. She says women in her community are depended on their husbands for all their provisions and because of that they do not take action when they are abused.
“I always encourage women to report cases of gender based violence but they fear repercussions. At times they report in the morning and in the evening they withdraw the case after realising that they will have no one to care for them. At times relatives may put pressure on the women to withdraw the case,” says Jesta.
Jesta says the government should economically empower women so that they are able to stand on their own. The village head also added that civil society organisations were playing a pivotal role in raising awareness on gender based violence.
A legal practitioner, Nikiwe Ncube Tshabalala who is a Senior Lawyer at Ncube-Tshabalala says gender based violence is so widespread in the country. Nikiwe says some cultural and religious practices were contributing to the spread of GBV.
“Culture and religion have allowed gender based violence to breed and to spread to an extent where it is now entrenched. Women do not report cases of GBV. They just suffer in silence. Culture has taught women to be strong and to hold on no matter how things get in the marriage,” says Nikiwe.
Nikiwe added that communities only express outrage when a woman is finally killed as a result of GBV. She says in many cases the violence will have gone unreported for a long time and it is better to report before someone gets killed.
“Most cases are swept under the carpet. Families choose to handle GBV issues on their own. Sexual violations within a family are never reported as some people feel that it undermines the family’s integrity,” says Nikiwe.
The silence on GBV requires multifaceted efforts that are encored on giving voice to women so that they speak openly and advocate for environment that promote the rights of women.
This article was written as part of the Creative Centre for Communication and Development (CCCD) project that seeks to strengthen the voices of women and girls, especially under the grim impact of the Coronavirus (COVID 19). CCCD has used the WhatsApp mobile application to train women and girls so that they express their voices on what is happening in their communities.
