Culture, Health & Society
Tinotenda Chikohora lthough the Domestic Violence Act of 2008 criminalises the use of physical force to control and maintain power over someone, society is failing to compliment the law to end the repeated frightening and intimidation of women in the marriage institution. According to statistics, 70 percent of women who report domestic violence cases either withdraw the cases or do not show up in courts. This has been largely attributed to the patriarchal society that we live in. The society subscribes to female docility thus perpetuating the oppression of women. It is particularly disturbing that in all cases of domestic violence, women end up backing down either because of pressure from in-laws or because of fear of the unknown or rather of myths on domestic violence and battering. Society seems to agree that some women need to be beaten up in order to shake them up and that battered women are crazy. Moreover, it is believed that battered women are uneducated and have few or no job skills. In fact people believe that middle class women do not get battered as frequently or as violently as poor women.
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Although statistics reflect the truth of such claims, the middle class is more fearful of what people might find out or say about them, hence they suffer in silence. One of the key drivers of domestic violence is the belief in some women that children need their father for proper upbringing even if he is violent. Women in such a state of mind put up with domestic violence with the faith that abusers will end their violence if they turn to religion. One female pastor was taken for questioning after
Truths and
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The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine
February 2013