CAUSES OF GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

The existing smoke is as result of the quenched fire so is the GENDER BASED VILOLENCE; having discussed and known the types of Gender based violence we will not relent in knowing what brought about the issue. The factors that instigate an action are very necessary and essential to establish facts. So the causes of gender based violence are many and varied depending on the types earlier discussed:

(1)               TRADITIONAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

(2)               FINANCIAL INSECURITY

(3)               CULTURAL BELIEVES

(4)               MYTHS

TRADITIONAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD: There is believe around the entire Globe that women are weaker sex, and as a result this believe helps the male counterpart to perpetrate violence against them. The men see female as subordinates and therefore constrain their ability to exercise their choice and perform duties with their maximum potentials which will help to end the abuse of women. The civilization in western world like Europe has open the eyes of men who were ignorant of the fact that women are loaded with wonderful creative potential only if they are given the opportunity to exercise it. Today in Europe, even in some developing countries like Nigeria civilization has taught them to send their educated wives to school, because they realize that she might come out a public figure in the society if only she is enlighten to understand her right as a woman.

But to the Ignorant ones, the Kitchen still remains the destination and career of every woman, no, it should not be so, the Kitchen is a temporal base for every woman because there is time for everything. When the time for a woman to exercise her potential comes, the Kitchen is a forgotten issue. But women should be wise in this timing, when your kids are still tender; they need your maximum attention. But the more they grow and mature the lesser the burden to you and the more you delegate responsibility to your kids including the Kitchen. If possible get a helper you pay to assist you in this, so you can face other areas of your life and create a change in the society. You are not destined to remain in the kitchen and as a house wife. You are destined to create a change in the society and you remain an Agent of change in your career.

Furthermore, still under this traditional attitude, the more crowded people are living in a particular geographical area, the increase in domestic violence towards women. This is common in India and China where there are densely populated persons. The major cause of this living together is poverty due to economic crises, people does not have enough funding to live in a better environment that is free of hassles. And as a result the female teenagers from such environment tend to engage prostitution as means to remedy the situation and even supported by parents and male siblings which may end them up as a victim of Rape and Assault as well as defamation of name and character within and outside their environment.  In Nigeria for example AJENGUNLE in Lagos State is notorious for corruption as OBIAGU in Enugu is considered the same. Women or young girls from those areas shy away from responsibilities in the society because of complex which affected them due to the environment they were trained as a result of poverty. Some men will abuse them sexually because they yield easily out of poverty and inferiority complex as well as dump them for next person to continue where they stopped.

FINANCIAL INSECURITY: This is another cause of gender based violence, the society has paint picture in the mind of citizens that men are strong, educated, creative, and clever while female gender are not so. This believes also affect the financial base of famine gender, they are deprived of their right to amass wealth and live independently as spinsters, even before marriage. In Nigeria due to lack of civilization, a spinster that does not live with her parents before marriage is believed by male counterpart as an irresponsible or as a wayward woman ; and overdue lady who has experienced every part of enjoyable lifestyle and made money looking for men he will settle down with. So the male believes that this type might not be pregnant for them again because they believe they are overdue for marriage. And the country being corrupt one, no spinster that made money at higher level will want to settle with a non entity. So these become problems to some young girls who had made money to settle down with men. They now go for men who will serve them and do what they want because average enlighten young men in Nigeria will not tolerate sheet from any women because of money. But in the western world where corruption is less and economy is better, it is not like that: A woman is always in charge in Europe. Our young men in Nigeria will travel all the way to Europe only to end up serving a white woman as a Husband with begging. The day the man will misbehave, the woman will deport him back to his country with the help of the security operatives. Yes, they will help you get your papers if you are obedient, but they will delay you to make sure you don’t come to deceive them and run away. The worst about this is that the child you bear with her is not your child but hers. So when coming back to Nigeria, you are not authorized to go with your children without her approval. So women are empowered in Europe more than men. Should the same right be given to women in Nigeria? I think they will do better, but not to intimidate their male counterpart. Let equality be equality.

Also the way parents bring up their children, which create disparity between boys and girls also is one of the major cause of Gender Based Violence in life as regard making money later in life. Some parents who treat their children equally always have the female Gender stronger later in life. Administer the same measure of duty and punishment while training your kids. Don’t discriminate in sharing things. For instance when a boy grows having a mental assent that the female sister is responsible for washing her cloth is a wrong show. Because if he grows up and marries a woman who comes from a family where duties are shared equally, you see there will be problem. And this will end up creating a tension that will lead to violence against the female in the marriage. Some family will not allow the female gender to exercise their right as per working and earning as well as investing in the home due to wrong believes and impression given to the male counterpart during upbringing. And as a result the male are puffed up that they are to dominate in everything and every bit of challenge and competition from female counterpart ends up in violation which will end up in sustained injury on the part of the female. All these issues should be curbed during child upbringing

CULTURAL BELIEVES: It is a custom for some society to have the female get married at the tender ages of 6, 8, and 12 years. This is common in china, as the female will not attend to school and will be given in marriage to the family of the husband to assist in trading and craft work until she gets to the age of maturity. But this is abuse to the highest order, one of the escapees of this cultural believe who travelled with a Mexican boy friend from china to Mexico where she ended up as a slave to a woman stranger that maltreated her after missing direction with the friend that brought her to Mexico narrated this issue in CNN after being salvaged by human right commission from the maltreated family who were sentenced to 40 years imprisonment each for the crime committed towards her. According to her some of these female are given out early in marriage as specified by their tradition ends up in death as a result of sufferings during child bearing and other complicated issues.

So the way society is set up culturally can cause Gender Based Violence like power relations, economic power imbalances and the masculine idea of male dominance.

MYTH: This has to do with the way a woman comports herself, in order to avoid some negative influence toward the opposite sex. A woman’s dressing and behavior can cause rape. This myth according different background of culture has to do with the generally accepted mode of comportment for feminine gender. Europe has recorded high rate in rapes especially Germany and Mexico because of shabby dressing of the female gender which male gender were unable to control the urge that it triggers on them. A woman that dresses shabbily half naked is asking for attention, flattery or just trying to fit in. she is now asking to be raped. And the effect of this Gender Based Violence is devastating and long lasting to the memory of a woman. They pose danger to woman’s productive health and can scar a survivor psychologically. A woman who experiences this domestic violence and lives in an abusive relationship with her partner may be forced to become pregnant or have an abortion against her will or her partner may knowingly expose her to sexually transmitted infection.

ONYIA EMEKA HARFORD

(PUBLISHER/WRITER: +2348186388641)