Eliminating Violence Against Women, by Ike Willie- Nwobu

The United Nations takes November 25 every year as the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women.

What will the world do without women? Peace builders, bridge builders, homemakers? A world without women is simply inconceivable, that is why it does not exist and cannot exist.
As the United Nations commemorates the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, it is important to reflect on the welfare of women in a world working furiously against them.

Women face significant challenges in the world today. Whether in the workplace, at home or in the larger society, there is a concerted but subconscious effort to render women invisible and voiceless.

At home, women face the hurdles erected by a superstitious and patriarchal society which simultaneously subjugates women under the prescripts of patriarchy while remaining aloof when reality forces upon them the role of breadwinners.
In many societies, twisted belief systems do not allow woman to operate beyond the boundaries of making the home. With perverse prisms through which women are seen only as good for house chores and making babies, women are expected to reinvent themselves for these purposes only while restricting themselves to the home front. In other words, women are not expected to have aspirations that transcend the kitchen or cradle. As injustices go, few are more atrocious.

Violence against women remains systemic and even structural in a country like Afghanistan, where the terrorist Taliban government is bent on increasingly limiting the space available to women. In many places, violence against women has become so entrenched as to be normalized.

In a world which postulates and polemicises its patriarchy despite startling and alarming signs that it is its poison, women face discrimination in their bid to work. Many work spaces remain closed to women who face hurdles erected by men. Women can’t get into many jobs because they are supposedly more suited to men.
This tendency to shrink the work space to exclude women is a major form of violence against women. Unfortunately, it has also spilled into the public space in Nigeria, for example, with the reluctance of the Nigerian government to fully implement the national gender policy particularly telling. Despite the Federal High Court judgement compelling the federal government to reserve 35 percent of all public appointment slots for women, that order has not tasted any sort of compliance.

As the world becomes more unequal and insecure with conflicts breaking out in different parts of the world, women remain an extremely vulnerable group. Women and children disproportionately suffer the effects of conflicts conceived and stoked by men.

This year’s commemoration of what is a plague in contemporary society is also a massive opportunity for reflection and action on domestic violence. Many women are living impossibly violent and volatile conditions right in the heart of their homes where they should feel safest.

Domestic violence must no longer be treated as a family affair which can be settled outside the operation of law. All those involved must be treated like the criminals that they are.

Eliminating violence against women is pivotal to a safe world where everyone lives with dignity.

Ike Willie- Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com