Gender, Tsungai Chekerwa Machokoto
The issue of gender-based violence (GBV) keeps recurring and it seems with each case, people are getting more and more numb in their sensitivity. We are becoming more and more tolerant of violence.  

We have even begun to make excuses and to “understand” the abuser.  The effect of GBV on a person arguably lasts for the rest of one’s life despite the psychosocial therapy that one goes through. Children’s lives are altered negatively by the witnessing of abuse or the experience of it.

It is a fact that mostly women are the victims of GBV therefore I will refer more to the impact GBV has on women and children cases more than men.

GBV seriously affects all aspects of women’s health: physical, sexual and reproductive, mental and behavioural health.

Health consequences of GBV can be both, immediate and acute as well as long lasting and chronic. Indeed,  negative health consequences may persist long after the violence has stopped. The more severe the level of violence, the greater the impact will be on women’s health.

Furthermore, exposure to more than one type of violence (e.g. physical and sexual) and/or multiple incidents of violence over time tends to lead to more severe health consequences according to a recent WHO report.

GBV can result in women’s deaths. Fatal outcomes may be the immediate result of a woman being killed by the perpetrator, or in the long-term, as a consequence of other adverse health outcomes. This has been happening repeatedly in the neighboring South Africa.

I’m sure we all know the case of Karabo Mokoena, who was abused,  killed and was burnt allegedly by her boyfriend.  Girls are being killed by jealous boyfriends and lately they have been burning the dead bodies. I honestly don’t understand why.

Also, mental health problems resulting from trauma can lead to suicidality, or to conditions such as alcohol abuse or cardiovascular diseases that can in turn result in death. HIV infection as a result of sexual violence can cause Aids and ultimately lead to death.

The World Bank estimates that rape and domestic violence account for five percent of the healthy life years of life lost to women aged 15 to 44 years in developing countries.

Every year lost due to premature death is counted as one disability-adjusted life year (DALY) and every year spent sick or incapacitated is counted as a fraction of DALY, depending on the severity of the disability. At the global level, the number of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) lost by women in this age group is estimated at 9,5 million years, comparable to other risk factors and diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV, cardiovascular diseases or cancer also from a World Bank report.

Globally, 38 percent of all murders of women are reportedly committed by intimate partners. Evidence of this is  in the cases that we have been trending lately.  Out of all women who experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner, 42 percent experienced injuries as a result.

Compared to women who have not experienced partner violence, women survivors of such violence face a 16 percent higher risk of having a low-birth weight baby, are more than twice as likely to have an induced abortion, and are more than twice as likely to experience depression.

In some regions, women who experienced sexual intimate partner violence are more likely to acquire HIV and more likely to have syphilis compared to women have not experienced such violence.

Women who have experienced non-partner sexual violence are more likely to have alcohol use disorders and more likely to have depression or anxiety, compared to women who have not experienced such violence according to the WHO.

While health consequences of GBV are similar across low,  medium and high income countries, the nature or severity of the effects of such violence may vary according to context-specific factors, such as poverty; gender inequality; cultural or religious practices; access to health, legal and other support services; conflict or natural disaster; HIV prevalence; and legal and policy environments.

The effect of GBV on children is the worst in my humble opinion because you create a painful world for them to survive in.  Like violence against women, violence against children is not only a Zimbabwean or African problem,  it is a global problem.

It takes a variety of forms and happens in many settings: the home and family, in schools and educational settings, in institutions such as orphanages, children’s homes or in the community. Children experience violence most commonly from people who are part of their lives — their parents, school mates, teachers, boyfriends/girlfriends, spouses or partners.

Much violence against children remains hidden. Many children are afraid to report incidents of violence they experience.

This fear is closely related to the stigma attached to reporting violence, especially in cases of rape or other forms of sexual violence. We as a country are partly to blame for that because it is us who attach that stigma.  Nobody asks to be abused and therefore nobody should be judged when it happen. Nobody deserves that humiliation no matter what they might have committed.

Another factor is the social acceptance of physical, sexual or psychological violence by both, perpetrators and children as normal.  It is not normal at all and we should stop attaching cultural connotations to violence because there is no violent culture.

We create that by accepting crime,  terming it normal by not doing what we are supposed to do: calling it be out for what it be is.  Violence is a crime.

Further, there is low number of safe or trusted ways for children to report violence.

Violence against children in the family frequently takes place in the context of discipline, in the form of physical, cruel or humiliating punishment. It is often accompanied by psychological violence, such as insults, belittling, name-calling or rejection.

Furthermore, there is increasing acknowledgement of the occurrence of sexual violence in the home.  This one is a real challenge because as parents we are always on our phones, on social media platforms that we fail to even see the signs that there is something happening.  We really need to pay more attention to our children and not to WhatsApp,  but that’s a discussion for another day.

Children are also directly or indirectly affected by intimate partner violence committed against their mothers, in the following ways:  the abuser can intentionally injure children in order to threaten or control the survivor (like using a child as a physical weapon by throwing her/him against the woman) or physically or sexually abusing a child as a way to coerce the woman into doing something.  The cases we hear are alarming.

Unintentionally injuring the children during an attack on the survivor includes injuring a child when the mother is pushed against the wall when holding the child or kicking a child who is trying to stop the attack against her/his mother.

If only men would realise the impact of what they do to women, maybe they would think twice,  especially before getting children involved.

Violence against children in its different forms has a negative impact on children’s physical, psychological and sexual health. Further, witnessing intimate partner violence against their mothers, even when the child is not physically targeted, has shown negative social and health consequences for children, including anxiety, depression, poor school performance and negative health outcomes.

For example, prevalence research shows that the rate of children who have frequent nightmares is nearly two times higher for children whose mothers experienced partner violence, compared to those children whose mothers did not. Similarly, the percentage of children who are aggressive and who wet their bed often is almost three and 1.5 times higher, respectively, among children who were exposed to intimate partner violence against their mothers compared to those who were not, that’s from a UNFPA report.

Also, it is well-established that exposure to intimate partner violence against the mother increases the risk of boys perpetrating and girls experiencing intimate partner violence later in life.

In conclusion, GBV has negative consequences on women and children.  Whether the violence was targeted against children or not is immaterial because their lives change for the worst either way.

There is a part that we can play as women,  to ensure that we see early signs of problems in our children.  Spending time with our children instead of our phones is one way of nipping an abuse problem in the bud.  Our nation is really affected by the violence that occurs and we all have a part to play in putting an end to violence. Do your part.  Tell someone.

Tsungai Chekerwa Machokoto can be reached on [email protected]

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