Take a look around you, you will find that woman who knows her sex mate is her daughter/house help but cannot utter a word for fear of being ex pulsed from her home, you will find that woman who stays a little longer at her home for the sake of her kids, you will find that woman who knows that the man with whom she is having an affair is married but still finds reason to date him and keep his wife for a friend, you will find that woman who envies her neighbour so badly because she does things the right way, you will find that woman who hates another woman because she is good (if not excellent) at what she does, you will find that woman who could kill another woman because she dresses properly, and in my profession I find educated women who decorate my path with stumbling blocks because they can't do it my way. In all of these and more... The violence that disfigures a woman's pretty face is not as bad as the worst form of violence, which is unseen.
One that breaks your spirit and destroys you day after day.
While international bodies Situate the link between sexual violence, gender and food insecurity via interesting initiatives like the Zero Hunger Challenge united for a sustainable world presenting some women devoted to women's empowerment and gender equality, I am interested in the mind, the character, the trends deforming the heart of the woman as the second ticks. It is true I am not a perfect individual because I strife, like every other, for perfection. This process I must confess, is the most challenging in a setting where mother and child get pregnant for the same man, or hungry lad decides to bring in a bastard baby to a family barely struggling to feed.
Deep and Heartless you may say, but believe me, an empty stomach cannot defend the course of a suffering generation like ours. And every time a girl refuses the education given her to preserve herself for a bright and promising future, the planet is exposed to violence. In her fragile state, she is vulnerable and ready to do anything for survival. The reason why you will find girls sleeping with men for few kilograms of rice and fish to take back home to feed babies they had out of wedlock.
It is no time for judgement. It is a time for reflection and in truth and honesty, we all know how much violence a woman suffers from her fellow mate. Things are evolving at a slow pace, I must confess and a lot more has to be done. By who? By you and I. Have we identified the problems? Do we agree that wrong planning results to poverty and hunger which makes siblings vulnerable and exposed to trends that promote injustice, violence and conflict? Do we agree that if we accept to live according to our status, without yet forgetting to have realistic dreams, we can banish violence from the earth's surface? It is a bitter pill to swallow but truth being bitter must be said to challenge us to action. Women are powerful peace promoters and peace is essential in every home. But peace is threatened by choices we make in our homes today. What choices are we making that affect the peace of the other? Are we obliged to make those choices? Can we resort to alternatives? What about us connecting in ideas (without omitting the fact that we are bound to accept difference through tolerance) and creating a safer and better world? Can we? Was Barack Hussein Obama right to say 'YES WE CAN'? Was Nelson Rolihlahla MANDELA right to say that 'IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TILL IT IS DONE' ? Was India's Ghandi right to say 'There is no path to peace. Peace is the Path'?
Connecting minds and creating the highly expected violence and conflict free Future should be our focus then. We all know right is not wrong, two wrongs can't make a right and we can make it happen, provided we believe and work hard to achieve.
As anti violence actors and stakeholders of peace, let us engage ourselves in well defined activities today (this should be our way of Life as from today) so together, we can crush the vice robbing our globe of the priceless asset PEACE.
Marking the 24th year of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, let us mend our bleeding World with peace thoughts and acts in our homes.
If peace is found in our homes, it is obvious that the community will suffer less violence.
But how do we end a vice that has become a source of lifelihood for some? How do we transfer peace from the home to the society? Prevention is key and efficient to ending violence and on this day set aside by the UN to knock out violence against the woman (Mother of humanity still exposed to violent and harsh treatments), I invite us to be peace ambassadors in our thoughts and acts.
It is important we know Peace does not suggest absolute calm because in our peace moves, we may be misunderstood. Are we going to fold our arms and watch our globe's infectious rate of the virus violence, conflict and war grow? We could empower the women and fight domestic violence from outside and leave the inside filthy, we would have done NOTHING. We cannot afford the expansion of the global pandemic (Violence seen in the growing acts of terror today) and ending violence (one of the UN's key priorities) warrants unified efforts.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, the UN agency dedicated to women, said that, although there have been advances in national policies to reduce violence against women, there is much left to do: today aims to be a time to reflect and to raise awareness on this issue. To date, over one hundred countries have no specific legislation against domestic violence and more than 70 percent of women in the world have in the course of their lives been victims of physical or sexual violence from men.
What if we knew the data? What if we made it our duty to help the women who are slowly dieing alone within four walls to free themselves from the psychological bondage and recognize that certain manipulation types are not expressions of love but acts of abuse, which are hitherto deep rooted causes of violence? What if we end Violence on the UN Day for the elimination of Violence against women in the World?
No comments:
Post a Comment