RIGHTS-BENIN: Women Groups Aim Daggers at the Heart of Abuse

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Michee Boko

OUIDAH, Benin, Apr 5 2003 (IPS) - After her husband died, Louise Anagonou was banished from their matrimonial home, which she and her husband had built at Ouidah, a small town some 40 kilometres west of the commercial capital, Cotonou.

Her husband’s family also confiscated the refrigerator she used to operate a small ice-cream business that provided a livelihood for the family. The couple has three children.

Her in-laws have accused her of adultery, something which Anagonou has vehemently denied. They also blamed her for her husband’s illness and death.

At first, her in-laws even concealed the news of her husband’s death and denied her the right to attend his funeral. They prevented her from attending the traditional rituals that followed her husband’s death.

This is a new kind of violence which widows – mostly from poor background – have been subjected to in Benin for years.

”In Benin, women are still kidnapped, forced into marriage, beaten and raped by their husbands,” says Genevieve Boko-Nadjo of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), a non-governmental organisation, which has offices all over sub-Saharan Africa.

WILDAF has 18 activists in Cotonou who promote and defend women’s rights. Recently it launched a new campaign to combat violence against women, through the opening of the Centre for Women’s Rights and Development in Cotonou.

”We hope that this centre will help support women’s development efforts, contribute to improving the legal and social status of Beninoir women, and be a source of information to encourage women to stand up against abuse,” says Gilberte Hounsonou of the Centre for Women’s Rights and Development in Benin.

”Abused women, who flee violent relationships and mistreatment, will find a haven, a helping hand, an attentive ear without fail at the centre. They will be taught about their rights and about how to enforce them. We hope to change the society’s mindset through this institution,” says Boko-Nadjo.

In Porto-Novo, Benin’s political capital, 30 kilometres east of Cotonou, 36 cases of violence against women were recorded at the magistrate’s court between 1998 and March 2003. The most common forms of the abuses were rapes of young women by individuals or gangs.

The most serious, according to one of the judges, Gerard da Sylva, was a father’s abuse of his two young daughters for several years, while the family kept mum. ”Once their father was finally arrested and thrown into prison, these same daughters fought for his release,” laments da Sylva.

”It’s hard for some women to recognise that they’ve been abused because fear, embarrassment, intimidation, and economic dependence interfere with their judgment,” says Boko-Nadjo.

Women make up more than 51 percent of Benin’s 6.7 million people.

Not everyone is enthusiastic, however. ”I’m afraid that with these kinds of centres opening up, you will only help to prolong the misery of women,” says Roger Gbegnonvi, a professor of literature at the University of Benin. ”Instead, we should make abusive husbands understand that they don’t have the right to beat their wives.”

To combat the growing cases of abuse against women, Nestor Azandegbe, president of the Beninoir Association to Promote Family Life, suggests the need to improve the economic, social, and legal status of women in society. ”The solution to this problem is harmony within the couple and harmony in the family. When men and women are happy and their children are well nourished and in school, there will be less violence in the family,” argues Azandegbe.

WILDAF has a programme to train and enlighten policemen, judges, medical doctors, as well as religious and traditional leaders about the rights of women. ”What is most important is to pass a set of laws that will make it hard for men to abuse women,” Boko-Nadjo emphasises.