Victor EzejaGender and disability advocates have highlighted how social norms in African communities promote disability exclusion and allow gender-based violence to thrive.
The experts participated in an intersectional panel discussion which Ford Foundation hosted on the final day of the AFRICANXT 2023 event on Friday, 10th February, at the Landmark Event Centre on Victoria Island, Lagos.
Moderated by Olufunke Baruwa, Programme Officer for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Justice in the Ford Foundation’s West Africa office, the intersectional session had the theme: “Social Norms As Driver Of Inequality (GBV) – An Intersectional Discussion.”
Members of the panel include: Lola Vivour-Adeniyi, Director General of the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), Lagos State; David Anyaele, Executive Director of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD); and Dr Abiola Akiyode Afolabi, Executive Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC).
The Panel examined how social norms drive inequality and discrimination against women and girls leading to gender-based violence (GBV).
Baruwa, a gender and development practitioner leading work on ending violence against women and girls in the West African front for Ford Foundation, said in her opening remarks that the session was to interrogate “the influence of negative gender social norms and cultural practices on how women and girls are viewed in the society. It would also help us create a space to discuss and develop an understanding of how culture itself, religion and even colonial norms help to place women in subordinate positions.”
Giving instances of how colonial norms contributed to the relegation of the status of women, Baruwa cited cases where women are subjected to dropping their surnames for those of their husbands. She said the norm was imbibed during colonial period, stating that Africans weren’t practicing it before the Europeans came on the shores of Africa.
One of the panelists, Dr Afolabi, who was represented by the Director of programmes, WARDC, Mrs Emmanuela Azu, said most forms of violations against women and girls, were man-made cultural practices infused into religion as well, for validation.
Acknowledging that most of the triggers for SGBV are created from people’s socialisation process, Ms Azu said everyone must be involved in tackling the malaise, and there is need for reorientation.
“We need a mind-set shift. We really need to move our minds from where we presently are, to be able to see things differently and act differently,” Azu stated.
Azu explained that most of the cases of gender violence, even the minor ones, occur because people are generally ignorant that they are violations.
She said that one of the things her Center does is to approach traditional custodians who have influence in communities to make them understand the implications of certain acts so they can sensitise the people by themselves to reduce the incidents of SGBV. She said that ending SGBV is a collective effort of all, including traditional rulers’, political stakeholders’, law enforcement agents’, among others.
David Anyaele of the CCD, who pushes for disability inclusion, said people with disabilities face heart-rending discrimination in communities where they live. “When disability occurs, the societal negative norms are activated against you. It is worse if you’re a woman. Such negative trauma widens,” Anyaele remarked.
He said that any society that believes and promotes “survival-of-the-fittest principle, does not accommodate people with disabilities and will continue to abuse the rights of the weak, exclude the marginalised population, and will continue to abuse and perpetrate violence against the weak, especially women.”
Anyaele observed that people in African communities have some cultural beliefs that make them see disabled persons as suffering from inherited curses as a result of evil committed by their fathers or forefathers or ancestors, thereby denying them the deserved empathy and kind treatment as humans.
He stressed that the antidote to such negative treatment to the disabled is to have attitude change and reorientation to enable people in communities understand that disability is not a crime or curse and they need to be cared for.
On how societies respond to issues of SGBV, Vivour-Adeniyi said there are so many norms or underlining factors that contribute to perpetration of domestic violence. According to her, most of the times, the abuses are caused by how people, especially men, were brought up (a product of one’s socialisation).
Lola said that in cases of sexual violence, societies are divided between those that “villify survivors”, by naming and shaming them, giving excuses for the perpetrators, and those that show empathy, support and encourage survivors to speak up.
She stressed that preventive approaches should be adopted rather than remedial measures that come after the acts would have been committed.
Lola also stated that private sector intervention is also needed to tackle issues of gender violence. Buttressing her point, gender advocate said that when a woman employee suffers abuse either at home in hands of her husband or elsewhere, it could affect her productivity at workplace, hence the need for organisations and their managers to step in.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
Follow Us