marital rape Archives

September 30, 2011September 30, 2011

Sexual Health in Africa: Study Shows Dominant Women Have Less Sex

Empowered women in control of household decisions could be losing out on sex, says a new study out of Johns Hopkins University.

Published in the Journal of Sex in October, the researchers asked women about the last date of sexual intercourse as well as who had the final say on decisions ranging from healthcare to household purchases.

According to the Telegraph, the researchers surveyed women from six African countries who reported the more decisions made, the less physical intimacy they shared with their partners.

“The more decisions a woman reported making on her own, as compared to through joint decision-making, the less likely she was to have sex and the longer it was since she last had sexual intercourse,” said lead researcher Michelle Hindin.

The findings showed more dominant and assertive women had approximately 100 times less sex.

But the researchers also noted that this isn’t necessarily incidental for them — it could also be women taking control of their sexual preferences, the Daily Mail reported.

“Understanding how women’s position in the household influences their sexual activity may be an essential piece in protecting the sexual rights of women and helping them to achieve a sexual life that is both safe and pleasurable,” co-author Carie Muntifering told Health24.com.

The location of the women studied may also have played a role, though. Most recently, a study by Florida State University’s Roy Baumeister argued that more equality would lead to more sex. He pointed to a study surveying over 300,000 people from 37 countries which found that countries with a higher gender equality had more casual sex and more sexual partners. In nations with less equality between the sexes, the opposite was true.

August 10, 2011August 10, 2011

Rapist Women Gang Terrorizing Men in Zimbabwe

Kitsepile Nyathi, allafrica

Cases of men who have been sexually abused by women are common in the country and hardly a week passes without such a report being made in the media.

The motives of these women are not known, but there is speculation that they may be doing this for ritual purposes.

Indecently assaulting

“We appeal to members of the public to pass any information to the police regarding three women who have gone on a spree of kidnapping and indecently assaulting young men around town,” Harare police boss Angeline Guvamombe said in a statement.

“The women drive in posh cars and offer their unsuspecting victims lifts before spraying some liquid substance on their faces.

“Once the victim is drowsy, he is taken to a secluded place or house where he is forced to have sex,” said Ms Guvamombe. “I want to warn these criminals that their days are numbered,” she added.

On Monday, the Herald reported that two men were kidnapped last week and forced to have sex with women at gunpoint.

In one of the incidents, a 30-year-old man was kidnapped by three women and forced to have sex with them for five days.

In some cases, the women use protection and collect the men’s sperm, leading to speculation that they were in the activity for ritual purposes.

At times, the women are helped by armed men.

Since the strange rape cases began sometime last year, no one has been arrested.

Police have said the women cannot be charged with rape because Zimbabwean law does not recognise that women can rape men.

But they will be charged with indecent assault, which carries a lesser sentenc

April 19, 2011April 24, 2011

Who are The Women and Where are They?

This is not supposed to be an essay. I’m just kind of talking to myself about some things that cheese me off.

Former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once said

“There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women”

I mentioned in one of my earlier articles that the problems African women face are enormous and they begin on day 1, or before. This is why we’ve devoted so much time and space to discuss issues affecting women in Africa and around the world on this website.

But since this afternoon, I’ve being asking, “Who are the women and where are they”?

I wrote about a handful of occurrences of violence against women, mostly from Ghana, and a few from other regions. One involved the brutal murder of an elderly woman, Ama Hemmaa, (who was burnt to death) by a pastor and his staff on suspicion she was a witch.

The most recent was the unutterable invasion of a suspected woman thief on the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon. I wish I had the video here for you to watch, because describing the incident over and over again makes me feel like telling an ‘adult story’. You could imagine the worst guys can do to a girl or read some of the earlier post on this issue.

There have been a few comments here from those who think Amina deserved what she did because a laptop is difficult to come by in Ghana. You have a point, friend; individuals who engage in such behaviors need to pay for it, LAWFULLY. That is the job of the campus police and that’s what we pay them to do. To strip the young woman naked, finger her (did I say that?) and put it on video is just antediluvian.

Granted that Amina deserved what she got, what about Ama Hemmaa?

This post is not meant to rehash the episodes; I just wanted to raise a few questions and ask for opinions.

It irritates me that women groups and organizations on campus, in Accra and in Ghana as a whole, have been silent on these issues. The silence is deadening. Some of us have done, and will continue to do our best. We’ve sent petitions to the authorities and hope they respond, someday.

I would welcome demonstrations and strikes from women groups and organization demanding immediate response from both the University authorities and local law enforcement. Not heard of any yet.

You cannot ask for equality and justice while you will not articulate what you want and demand it. Equality is not about husbands changing diapers while wives wash dishes. There will not be true equality and justice when issues like these are seen as commonplace.

I do not assume this is a universal problem. Women in other places may be more assertive, aggressive and pro-active in fighting for their rights. Those in Legon, Accra and Ghana have not yet demonstrated such a spirit.

I’m not advocating for violence, but we would not have a black President of America if Martin Luther King and his colleagues were just pissed off and stayed indoor to watch cartoons.

My questions are:

Why do women not come out strong and advocate for each other and for their own rights?
Why would women just sit and watch, while an elderly woman who just needs to enjoy her latter years is burnt for being a witch?
Is this situation unique to Ghana or pervasive across the continent (referring to women not speaking out for their own)?

Have any ideas and suggestions? Please drop them here for me.

Thank you.

March 7, 2011April 17, 2011

What I would Talk About if I Were a Celebrity: Spousal Rape

Valentine Day is about love, chocolate and kisses. Mother’s Day is about extravagance, breakfast in bed and Women’s Fellowship service at church. International Women’s Day is about serious issues with dire consequences for millions of women in hundreds of countries. Marital or spousal rape is one. The first celebration of International Women’s Day occurred on March 19, 1911, 100 years ago. Before this period, employers had their choice whether to hire women and most governments in the world, including the U.S. and Canada, prohibited women from voting. In fact, employers who decided to have anything at all to do with women relegated them to the sweatshop.

Significant progress has been made over the past hundred years but huge challenges remain for the women of today. On this anniversary, a lot has been written by more qualified experts to address some of these challenges women face. If I were a celebrity or a popular figure who people listen to, what I would love to write or talk about would be spousal rape or marital rape which occurs in several African communities and many countries.

Marital rape or spousal rape is an issue that has received very little attention internationally. I want to admit that the first time I heard the term ‘marital rape’, it sounded an oxymoron or a paradox. It was like hearing “useless treasure”, “precious garbage” or “holy dirt”. I asked myself how someone could be raped by her own partner. Isn’t that what the relationship is for?

There are millions of people, some highly educated, some not, who hold the mentality that I had. In many communities in many countries, when a woman (girl or adult) is forcibly made to have sex, it is reported as rape. No problem. When a husband forcibly pounces on his wife and has sex with her, even when she’s least ready and least expecting it, that’s no news. She’s just the wife. In fact, journalist, don’t even cover it. Marital rape does not get any attention but it happens every single day. In many countries around the world, marital rape is either legal, or illegal but widely tolerated and accepted as a husband’s prerogative.

In a 2008-2009 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, the report states that “at least 14 percent of married women said their current husband or partner had forced them to have sex in the past year, while another 37 percent had been subjected to sexual violence at some point in their relationship”. That is 14 out of every 100 women surveyed said their husbands had entered them forcibly in one year. And 37 women out of 100, overall! That is nearly 4 out of every 10 women! Again a World Health Organization conducted a study on violence against women in Tajikistan and Turkey. In Tajikistan they surveyed 900 women above the age of 14 and found that 47% of married women reported having been forced to have sex by their husband. In Turkey 35.6% of women had experienced marital rape sometimes and 16.3% often. How many of these were reported? How many were covered in the evening news? And how many appeared in the local newspaper? Perhaps none. The societies accept these social behaviors and actually women who come out and report these behaviors will be stigmatized. A politician wouldn’t want to waste an ounce of their effort fighting such an irrelevant matter.

As we celebrate the international women’s day, I’ll end this by suggesting a few actions that governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and communities need to take to protect the rights and dignity of women in relationships.

Embark on aggressive community campaigns to educate the citizenry on what sexual violence and rape in marriage implies
Empower the women to assert their rights and report what they perceive as rape or other forms of sexual violence
Enact laws to police marital or spousal rape and related violence
Train and provide health care professionals at the hospital who can identify what rape and other sexual violence are, who know what the law is, and how to enforce it and can show the women how to move forward. Since some of these women will eventually end up at the hospital or clinic with lacerations and other ‘fingerprints’ this will be an effective method to identify women who may have been abused.

I wish all women a Happy Women’s Day. Violence against women is violence against civilization.
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