I’ve been surprised by the number of articles that appear in the daily newspapers with the headlines, ‘Man defiles 2-year-old girl; 37-year-old teacher defiles 11-year old orphan, or 30-year-old man defiles 15-year-old epileptic girl.” And the list goes on and on. But the latest headline that really prompted me to write about this issue of defilement appeared in the Daily Times. The article talked about a 30-year-old HIV positive man defiling his 5-year-old stepdaughter.
I acknowledge that cases of rape or sexual abuse are not just common in Malawi, but in Canada and all over the world as well. In news you hear cases after case of a child being kidnapped, sexually abused, and killed. But the headlines in Malawi seem way too common at least from my perspective. So I decided to ask around to find out more about young girls being defiled or molested as we say in the west.
When I visited a non-governmental organization called the Society for the Advancement of Women (SAW), my suspicions were confirmed.
“Rape is on the increase because of the idea that when an older man rapes a young girl it’s cleansing for an HIV positive man,” said Catherine Munthali, executive director of SAW.
This cleansing belief has to do with the idea that virgins are clean and will help a man get rid of his HIV status. The women who are most at risk are elderly women and young girls, said Munthali.
But when I asked Munthali where this belief came from, she doesn’t have an answer. She suspects the belief didn’t emerge from a specific culture but that it has more to do with the power relations in Malawi than anything else—possibly a way of keeping women in check so that patriarchy can continue.
Malawi is a patriarchal society, as are many other societies. But during the dictatorship of Hastings Kamuzu Banda the idea of human rights was non-existent, several human rights organizations told me. It wasn’t until after 1994 when the multiparty democracy was introduced into Malawi that human rights organizations were formed, and Malawi became a signatory onto many international human rights conventions.
Banda was in power for nearly 30 years. When Britain granted Malawi independence in 1958 he assumed the role of Malawi’s first Prime Minister. In 1996, Malawi became a republic and Banda became president. He remained in power until 1994, which is when he lost the presidential election. In 1993 there was a referendum on whether to introduce multiparty democracy. Malawians voted heavily in favour of this new system.
Many Malawians say that Malawi under Banda was safe and stable. People enjoyed relative economic prosperity, and he greatly improved the infrastructure. But under Banda more than 250, 000 Malawians were detained without trial, prisoners were underfed and brutally tortured (although this problem of the prisons still exists today). Political opponents were jailed, if not killed. Criticism of Banda was unacceptable. Censorship of books, films, television, and periodicals occurred. And journalism was not an accepted profession.
For women, subjects surrounding family planning were illegal, so the population tripled under Banda’s regime. The concept of marital rape wasn’t considered. And cases of property grabbing were common and accepted. This means that when the husband dies, his family comes and collects all of the man’s belongings because when a woman marries a man the property automatically belongs to the man.
A friend of mine told me about his own family’s experience in the early 90’s. After the death of his father, his father’s relatives came and took everything. If his father had paid a dowry to his mother’s family than he would have been taken as well.
According to the Catholic Commission of Justice and Peace, property grabbing is still widely accepted in the northern region of Malawi. This is also a significant infringement on women’s rights, and the notion of property grabbing helps to keep women in the place of second class citizen.
A well-know human rights activist explained to me that the problem with Malawi is that it’s still a young democracy, so it’s taking time for people to know and understand their rights.
“The legacy left by Banda is still lingering in our minds,” said Moses Mkandawire, director of church and society for CCAP Synod of Livingstonia.
For example, under Banda police officers torturing prisoners was accepted. The same police officers that served under Banda are still officers to this day.
He explains these problems as culture shock.
The human rights legislation is there. But the problem is not just about enforcing these laws, but it’s about changing culture, he says.
“We’re learning faster. This time around the constitution recognizes the role of women and protects children. But women have lagged behind because of the patriarchal system,” he said.
Catherine Munthali agrees with Mkandawire about the need to change cultural beliefs. Women need to be sensitized on their rights, she says. Currently many women aren’t aware that they can refuse to have sex with their husbands.
“Women don’t know they have the choice to say no,” said Munthali, “especially at the rural level.”
Under section 24 of Malawi’s constitution women who are married are protected against sexual abuse, harassment and violence. It also states that they are required to maintain property rights.
But creating equality in Malawi means that NGO’s must also get cooperation with the judicial system. At the moment rape, defilement, human trafficking and other forms of violence against women such as mutilation and murder are so widespread.
The judicial system doesn’t defend women’s rights and this makes them defenseless in their home and in larger society.
“Although there are many laws that have been ratified, they are difficult to implement because they are not local. Most judges cannot use international conventions because they don’t know them,” said Munthali.
Malawi is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
But often perpetrators of sexual violence get off scot free.
The problem lies with evidence, said Munthali.
Rape cases are often mishandled by the police because of the evidence problem and clinics mishandle the case because rape victims aren’t given special treatment.
In SAW’s case they had evidence that a 13-year-old girl was raped but the police didn’t believe the evidence. In other cases if a girl goes to a clinic she doesn’t receive special care so often evidence is removed and the criminal gets away with the crime, says Munthali.
Another case appeared in this week’s daily times where an 11-year-old girl was defiled in May of this year. In this case the man who defiled the girl was tried as a juvenile, although to be tried as a juvenile the criminal must be under 18-years of age. In reality the suspect was much older than 20. The suspect was released on bail and the case has been closed.
This is just some of the challenges that young girls and women are facing.
And for SAW the fight will continue as they seek to sensitize the public on the effects gender-based violence has on not just women but in the end what it is doing to the stability of the country.
“As an organization we are looking at how to create a coordinated approach to protect women from gender-based violence. People don’t understand the trauma that these girls must deal with afterwards,” said Munthali.
“We want the community to understand that rape is part of gender-based violence.”
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