Women's reproductive rights

KWENU! Our culture, our future

Women's reproductive rights

Adeze Ojukwu

Monday, November 24, 2003

But for the intervention of the international community and a benevolent judge, a young Nigerian woman would have died by stoning. Precisely on September 25, the Sharia Court of Appeal in Katsina State, Nigeria acquitted Amina Lawal, who had been charged with zina (adultery).

The trial court ruled that her conviction was based on a confession of Amina and the fact that she was pregnant out of wedlock. The story of Miss Lawal is still very fresh in the minds of many. Despite her hard-earned freedom, there are concerns about her security and that of other women in similar circumstances. In a chat in Washington DC last month with Hauwa Ibrahim, Amina’s defense counsel, she asked rhetorically: Who is the next victim?

That is the question that is worth recalling at this time as women worldwide mark another International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women from Monday, November 24. Irrespective of the cultural cum religious undertones of her so-called crime and the death penalty that hung over her head like the sword of Damocles prior to her acquittal, Amina’s case epitomizes to a large extent the reality of gender-based violence such as female genital mutilation (FGM), dowry murder, honor killing, rape, and other sexual violations suffered by women.

Reflecting on these issues at a conference tagged ‘Not a Minute More,’ held last Monday at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, the Executive Director of the UN Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Ms Noeleen Heyzer said, "At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually known to her." According to her, violence against women and girls is a universal problem of epidemic proportions.

The UNIFEM top-shot stated that "statistics paint a horrifying picture of the social consequences of violence against women. In 2002, the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation declaring violence against women a public health emergency and a major cause of death and disability for women 16 to 44 years of age. In a World Bank report, it was estimated that violence against women was as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer and a greater cause of ill-health than traffic accidents and malaria combined."

The economic cost is also considerable, she stressed, citing a 2003 report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which "estimates that the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States of America (USA) alone exceed $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.

In her views, ‘'for the most part, the human cost of gender-based violence is invisible. Fear and shame continue to prevent many women from speaking out and data collected is often insufficient and inconsistent." She however drew attention to sexual violence because of its devastating health and emotional impact on the victim.

Hear her: "Sexual violence includes any coerced sex in marriage and intimate relationships, rape by strangers, sexual harassment, forced prostitution and sexual trafficking, early marriages, female genital mutilation, virginity testing, and other forms of practices that control a woman’s use of her body."

In the USA, 700,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted each year with 14.8 percent of women reporting having been raped before the age of 17.

In a study of nearly 1,200 ninth-grade students in Geneva, Switzerland, 20 percent of girls revealed they had experienced at least one incident of physical sexual abuse.

In Peru, a study of 12 to 16 year-olds giving birth found that 90 percent of them were pregnant from rape, often incest.

A study conducted in Tanzania found that HIV-positive women were over two and half times more likely than HIV-negative women to have experienced violence perpetrated by their partners. Tragically, young women are particularly vulnerable to coerced sex and consequently they are increasingly being infected with HIV/AIDS.

Despite this gloomy picture, the UNIFEM boss said ‘there is hope’ given the success already recorded in a few countries that have complied with international and regional agreements in addition to legal, social and health services available to women today -- which did not exist some 15 years ago in several parts of the world.

Nevertheless, the overwhelming impact of violence against women especially the health implications notably death and disability of victims underscores the overriding urgency to end this social scourge.