Women in Zimbabwe need greater protection from the law
Merit is angry. And after reading this I’m sure you will be too. Merit is a Kubatana subscriber who wanted to share this article with us:
This woman, one of thousands in Zimbabwe, is just another statistic at the Police station and in her neighbourhood, but to me she touched a nerve. That could be my sister, whose only mistake was marrying the love of her life, questioning him when he brought a second woman home and getting her body mutilated by an axe, getting her head chopped off and leaving three traumatized children behind (The Herald). This woman could have been my mother, who at the age of 62, a grandmother of 5 is chased away from the matrimonial home for a younger wife, but staunchly refuses to go. “This is my home” she vows, “I know no other home but this one. Where do you want me to go after 44 years of marriage?” This woman that I saw could easily have been me, for refusing to have unprotected sex with a cheating partner. A cheating partner who feels he is entitled to by body and my womanhood, and when I refuse, he beats me, kicks me with booted feet and as an insult to my womanhood, shoves an empty bottle of coca cola into my vagina, rupturing my uterus and thus successfully ensures I cannot have anymore children.
This is what I saw dear readers. Words fail me as I try to express the emotions and questions that went though my mind as I looked at this woman, who could have been anyone, including me. I reflect on the thousands of women ZWLA has interacted with, and the tears started flowing. I asked myself if we have done enough in our families, our organisations, our communities, our churches, our parliament, our country, to ensure that my daughter will not witness this, or become a victim.
This woman, whom I choose to call Tariro (Hope – for I am still hopeful), has 22 stitches below her right eye, three broken ribs, a ruptured uterus, broken jaw, stitches in her mouth, and various injuries on her arms and legs. Her husband, who had beaten her up and left her for dead, had done so breaching a standing protection order under the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act. And to add insult to injury, the police could not find him in order to arrest him.
What makes me angry is the fact that abusers are getting away with “community service”. The perpetrators are violating Protection Orders and getting away with it. The police….let me not say lest I commit a crime. My point though is, what really is being done to curb this menace called domestic violence? Back to my story, it had to take four hours, four determined women and an unwilling police officer to track down this murderous man and have him charged and arrested. My question is, what happens to women in different parts of the country, who do not have ZWLA to make enough noise to get their cases heard and justice delivered? Who is responsible for the safety and protection of the ordinary woman?
I am angry because I cannot do all that I want to. I am angry because when a woman is beaten up no one takes it seriously until it results in death, and by then it does not make a difference to her anymore. I am angry because there are not enough safe houses and resources allocated towards the safety of women. I am angry, so I sat down and wrote this, hoping it would cleanse my hurting spirit and I can stop crying and snapping at the people around me.