Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa has raised the question if the value of the life of a woman has been reduced to a few sentences on social media now.
This is after a 19-year-old woman lost her life after allegedly being punched and stabbed by her partner in Colo-I-Suva last Friday during a heated argument over a Facebook message that was sent to a relative of the victim.
A 23-year-old pregnant woman also passed away earlier this month after being allegedly assaulted by her partner in Nasese, Suva.
Speaking out strongly against gender based violence on her official Facebook page the Minister has asked what gives some men the belief that they have the right to take the life of their female partner or spouse when there is a disagreement or a difference in opinions.
Vuniwaqa says the reasons we get to hear about are many and diverse - an affair, drunkenness, a blackout, money, jealousy, rage, or simply a Facebook message.
Vuniwaqa states the root of all these and many more, lie in the power struggle.
She says the male psyche is deeply entrenched in a gender stereotyped world which gives to the male, power and privilege over the female.
She adds the culture in Fiji expects the female to cook, clean, set the table, only eat after the males have eaten and wash the dishes afterwards.
The Minister stresses that girls face it when they go to school ‑ boys pulling their bra straps, poking them with a ruler through that gap on the bus seat, writing on toilet walls about that pretty girl in class, making up stories about that “play hard to get” girl ‑ all these being done under the cover of “child’s play” and accepted as such.
Vuniwaqa says when that girl becomes a woman and steps out of the mold of “expected” behavior, she faces a pushback in the form of violence in various forms adding in some cases it leads to death.
The Minister asks where has society failed, who is to blame when the life of a young woman is cut short by such violence, is it the fault of her parents who taught her to stand up for herself and to speak her mind or is it the educators who failed to address “child’s play” and to call it out for what it really is - sexual harassment.
She again asks is it the Church that continues to interpret the role of women as subservient to that of men or maybe the cop who sent the complainant of domestic violence back home to sort it out with her husband because it’s a private matter? Or is it the judge who didn’t give the maximum sentence because the female victim was having an affair.
Vuniwaqa states that addressing gender based violence takes a whole community, a whole nation.
She says we will not be able to take concrete steps towards eradicating this national shame if the different stakeholders in society keep reading from different hymn sheets.
She stresses the song needs to be the same adding it must be loud and clear and unequivocal.
The Minister further states if we start making justifications for the loss of a life for stepping out of the social norm then there really is no hope anymore.
She says our daughters and granddaughters and their daughters and granddaughters will continue to suffer the same fate because we didn’t do enough when we could.
ADVERTISEMENT
