Ethiopia calls for end of impunity of violence gainst women

A recent incident of gratuitous violence against a young woman in Ethiopia may help the East African nation finally emerge from a centuries-old approval of wife and woman beating as a cultural practice.

Ethiopian society has been in an uproar since 21-year-old Kamilat Muhdin was hospitalized two weeks ago, victim of an attack by an alleged spurned admirer with sulphuric acid, which burnt off most of the flesh on her face, including her nose, eyelids and lips.

The young woman, who works for her father at his store, was walking home with her two sisters in the evening, when a young man came out of the shadows, throwing a full jug of the acid on Kamilat, also splashing her younger sisters.

"This isn't just a crime against Kamilat," said Assefa Kesito, Ethiopia's minister of justice, was quoted as saying at her bedside.

"This is a crime committed against the state of Ethiopia. A crime committed against my daughter, my sister, my mother."

The crime comes at a moment when Ethiopia is struggling to implement legislation against age-old practices such as wife beating, child marriage, and female genital mutilation, among others.

Placed within the country's revised penal code, which came into force in May 2005, though modern and sensitive to gender issues, implementation of the legislation remains a challenge.

A 2003 World Health Organization (WHO) study in rural Ethiopia showed, for example, that 71 percent of Ethiopian women surveyed, who had ever been in a relationship, had suffered some sort of physical or sexual violence. Further, the country's 2005 demographic and health survey showed that 81 percent of women accepted wife-beating, reflecting the low self-esteem of women in the country.

"Violence against women is traditionally defined as physical assault," said Monique Rakotomalala, country representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for Ethiopia. "But in fact, it is common practice, permeating society and reflecting the deep inequalities among men and women."

"Violence is seen for example in women's limited decision- making and control to make use of contraceptives, which means that women are denied reproductive choices -- that too is violence," said Rakotomalala.

Ethiopia has made significant advances to protect women's rights in recent years: it has its first minister of women's affairs and overhauled legislation on rape, female genital mutilation and other gender-based offenses. Legislation against sexual harassment is still pending.

"There have been big advances. But there is still a problem with enforcing these new laws," said Mahdere Paulos, executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, told the press.

Mahdere said improvements depend on training police officers and changing female self-perceptions. "They would always see the man or the husband as a father who has a right to discipline his wife like he would discipline a child. It is the culture."

Law enforcement remains a challenge in Ethiopia, where limited socio-economic development opportunities leave room for continuing traditional and cultural values incompatible with gender equality.

"In the rural areas, people are aware of the legislation, but they do not really understand its implications," said an anthropologist hired by UNFPA to conduct an in-depth study or child marriage practices in the northern state of Amhara.

"There is a great need to convince this society that women actually mean something -- that they are not a tradable commodity - -that by including women as partners in the country's social makeup, society will become even more prosperous," said UNFPA country representative Rakotomalala.

Albeit uncommon, cases of attack with acid are on the rise in Ethiopia, according to one gender specialist, who recorded 10 such cases in the past two years, though not as serious, said a press report.

According to members of Kamilat's family, her assailant had harassed the young woman and her family for at least five years. In one incident, he gave her a bag saying that it contained a live bomb. When she tried to press charges, Kamilat was turned away from the police for lack of evidence.

With the story all over the news, Ethiopian society mobilized to secure financial support for Kamilat to undergo treatment and reconstructive surgery in France. Sheikh Al Amoudi, one of Ethiopia 's wealthiest men has promised to pay for the treatment, while top world marathonist Haile Gebreselassie paid for Kamilat's flight to Paris.

A UNFPA-sponsored televised debate on the issue is also scheduled to go on air next week, with a potential audience of 8 million viewers. For Ethiopian women, the case has meant public declarations by high government officials of support to end violence against women a first in the country.

"Let's just hope the Kamilat case will mean Ethiopian society will finally awaken to the wide forms of violence that women face daily in this country," said Rakotomalala.

Source: Xinhua