Violence Against Women

I am very excited to share this beautiful piece about "Violence Against Women" by Bisoye Fagbemi (Bold Bisoye). She is 8 years old and in Junior Secondary School 1. She is one of the participants of the Empowering Women of the Future Project in Ajegunle.

Definition of Violence:

Violence is an act that hurts other people. While woman is an adult female person therefore violence against women is an act to hurt a female person.

Women are exposed to violence from their opposite sex because it is presumed that women are weaker and so women continue to receive attack from their male counterpart.

Types of violence against women are many and some of them are:

·         Sex Abuse;

·         Marital Problem and

·         Bad Culture.

·         Sexual Abuse: Women are always facing sexual violence in terms of sexual intercourse for example rape.

For instance there was a story on the news about a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) female member that was seriously raped and killed and another lady who was also raped and killed in a hotel room in Lagos.

Even in my community, we hear stories about a lot of young girls being raped and they are often laughed at because some people believe it was the girls fault.

There are also cases of female students being taken advantage of by their lecturers and female employees being sexually abused by their boss.

•          Marital Problems: Some women in my community are forced to marry against their wish at a very tender age to men old enough to be their father, most of these women give up their education to take care of their old husband and bear his children.

These women are treated as lesser humans because they are still very young and uneducated especially when their husbands die suddenly. The properties of the man are taken over by his family without leaving any means of sustenance for the widow and her children.

•          Bad Culture: Due to some culture that promotes circumcision of the girl-child, women are exposed to infections after the circumcision.

Some cultures forbid the woman from coming out against their will so the woman is locked in.

As part of some traditional burial rites in some cultures, women are forced to confess to killing their husbands, drinking the water that wash used to was the corpse of the dead husband and her hair is shaved publicly.

Conclusion:

Violence against women is evil and should be stopped all over the world by enlightening the men and women about the woman not being a weaker vessel but as a human being who should be honored and respected.

"Violence Against Women" was one of the 3 homework topics participants from the Empowering Women of the Future project were asked to write about after our group meeting on Day 1.