Women Activists in Lilongwe Express Grave Concern Over High Levels of Gender Based Violence
Women activists in Lilongwe Thursday expressed grave concern over high levels of gender based violence mainly towards women in Malawi.
Jessie Kabwila, the head of the English Department at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi (Unima) said while taking part in the observance of 16 days of activism on gender-based violence that women have been at the receiving end of rape, psychological torture including hate words and beatings which has undermined society’s way of helping them improve their contribution to national development.
"Malawians should avoid uttering negative words towards women. Words can injure and amputate somebody’s brain if they are not carefully spoken. Negative words are part of violence against women" she added.
She said cultural and religious groups should define how they look at a woman in modern day society and advised that violence against them should be a thing of the past.
"Woman should not be seen as inferior to males but should be given equal rights" he said.
She added that if the definition can be taken at these two levels violence against women witness a drastic reduction in its numbers across the country.
Kabwila therefore called on women to report any violence against them to the nearest Victim Support Unit and urged women to improve their standing with education if they can realize economic and social independence.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
Category: Africa
