The Sunday Mail
There is not a single definition of gender-based violence which applies in all societies of the world as the concept is defined and understood differently. Terms such as, for example, “domestic violence”, “intimate partner violence”, “spousal abuse”, “battered women”, “sexual abuse” and “violence against women” are often used differently or interchangeably in various settings (Ellsberg and Heise 2005).
However, violence against women has been defined by the United Nations (Beijing Platform for Action, 1995) as “… any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”.
Whilst the visibility of literature on GBV against girls and women worldwide is unquestionable, very little research has been undertaken on GBV that targets disabled women in particular (Plummer and Findley, 2012). Such a scenario shows society’s unwillingness to recognise the reality that GBV against disabled women could be happening, disability does not shield a woman from GBV.
Some US publications reveal that disabled women experience GBV in the same manner, if not more than their non-disabled counterparts (Nosek et al, 2001; Plummer and Findley 2012). There is, therefore, recent research evidence (Peta et al 2015) that disability introduces an additional layer of vulnerability to GBV in the lives of girls and women.
For example, Tatenda who has an intellectual disability says: “My stepfather started to rape me when I was 11 and then he started to use me as a prostitute when I was 13, a different man each night. One day I overheard him saying to his male friends, ‘I have a very young one and she is very cheap, does anyone want her?’ My step-father got paid for the sexual services I provided.”
Although men are also vulnerable to sexual coercion, most victims are women and girls, who experience a myriad of acts such as indecent assault, rape, forced marriage, being involuntarily impregnated and sexual injuries (Amnesty International and Codesria, 2000). Whilst sexual coercion is often associated with aggressive behaviours, it may also take the form of emotional pressure such as making the victim feel obliged to take part in sexual deeds against her will (Ellsberg and Heise, 2005).
The same authors state that the hallmark of coercion is that girls and women do not usually have the leverage to make choices, and any attempt to make such choices is often accompanied with grave consequences of either an economic, physical or social nature. Tatenda says: “My mother was not working, she had two children from my father and five children from my stepfather, total seven children, and three of us, the girls are disabled, two of us with mental disability and my other sister in a wheelchair with polio.
We all survived on the money that my step-father was earning from his job, but my stepfather was also raping the three of us. My mother knew about it, but she just kept quiet.” It is possible that Tatenda’s mother could have maintained silence about the GBV with perhaps the intention of protecting her abusive husband from prosecution because he was the sole breadwinner of the big family.
It is likely that economic welfare took precedence over the significance of protecting the disabled girls against sexual abuse which carried the risk of HIV infection. Whichever way, the reality is that if the subject of sexual abuse is swept under the carpet, it becomes easier to use it negatively in violence, abuse, control, oppression, to cover up sexual scandals and to misinform one another. (“Interesting Interests”, 2009) In another example, Rudo who is deaf says: “I stayed with my husband before he paid roora (bride price) for me.
By the time he paid I was already pregnant with my first child. He began to beat me up if I upset him in any way. He would say that he paid the bride price for me so I should listen to him and do what he wants, because after all I am just a deaf woman.”
As is common in other African countries, in Zimbabwe, some husbands unleash violence upon their wives alongside a claim that they paid the bride price for them. (Chabata, 2012) Such practices resemble a kind of GBV that is perpetrated by men against women in situations where, as noted in South African studies, male behaviours flow from cultural norms of gender identity (Naidu and Ngqila 2013, Jewkes and Morrell 2010).
GBV “ . . . s used as the means of exercising power over the victim. The goal for the offender is gaining control, degrading, and humiliating the victims.” (Amnesty International and Codesria, 2000) Disability worsens the problem as some men may regard women with disabilities as easy targets who in spite of GBV, should be grateful to have a marriage because they are disabled.
In Zimbabwe a lot has been accomplished in relation to the promotion of women’s empowerment and gender equality. (UNFPA 2011) Such achievements are represented by the fact that the country has signed a variety of regional and international conventions, protocols, declarations and treaties that are aimed at promoting and creating a conducive setting for the achievement of women’s empowerment and gender equality.
However, most literature has remained silent on GBV that is distinctly experienced by disabled girls and women alongside an assumption that disabled girls and women are immune to GBV. However, Tatenda who has an intellectual disability and who married for the first time at the age of 54, endured numerous incidences of physical abuse perpetrated by her husband.
Tatenda says: “He was an alcoholic, he would beat me up and throw me around like a piece of paper. One day he threw me in the bush and I was full of thorns. He would hit me, and then say, ‘What happened to your face?’. I say, ‘You hit me’, and he says, ‘Surely disabled women are mad, I never hit you’.”
A US-based study reveals that some perpetrators of abuse may perceive the notion of being in an intimate partner relationship with a disabled woman as a chance to exploit and abuse her. (Plummer and Findley, 2011)
In some instances, those with psychosocial disabilities may be unable to realise that they are being abused, hence they may not see the need for them to seek assistance. (Nosek et al, 2001) Some US studies have called for the development of interventions that enable disabled women to rescue themselves from abusive locations. The reality is that injury is not the only primary health outcome of violence against women, but health consequences may include psycho-social disorders, depression and anxiety.
Civil society and disabled people organisations ought to work together and across all sectors to raise awareness of GBV that is perpetrated against disabled women, thereby reducing ignorance or indifference to the subject. As highlighted by Elman (2011), indifference may be interpreted to mean tolerance or permissiveness, thereby sending a potent and incorrect message to perpetrators.
Civil society and disabled people organisations should develop their own strategies for pursuing prosecution, thereby making it easier for authorities to intervene in GBV that is perpetrated against women with disabilities. Article 16 of the 2008 United Nations Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities directs us to make provision for the protection of disabled girls and women against all forms of GBV and to ensure the availability of GBV recovery programmes.
Dr Christine Peta is a public healthcare practitioner who among other qualifications holds a PhD in Disability Studies. Be part of the international debate on how best to nurture a society which is more accessible, supportive and inclusive of disabled people. Partner with Disability Centre for Africa (DCFA). WhatsApp +263773699229, www.dcfafrica.com and [email protected]
