INSIGHT | Still a long road ahead to uplift women

While August was originally meant for the upliftment of women, it has practically turned into a month of bewailing gender-based violence (GBV) because of the ever-increasing rate of violation of women and femicide.

In fact, the perpetrators of violence against women are intentionally disdainful of the noble purpose of August because they seem to choose this month for their most gruesome violation of women.

There is a lot being said to acknowledge discrimination and oppression of women in society and a lot is being said on how to reverse the situation, but there is a very slow pace in implementing the proposals. A still lower pace is the change of the mentality both in men and women.

In many ways, men continue to dominate women even as they profess egalitarianism, and many women continue to defer to the demeaning and abusive attitude and behaviour of men towards them. Even as they regard themselves as feminists, they continue to facilitate their own abuse by keeping quiet, hoping their men will change.

Guest speakers have penned and eloquently delivered speeches on GBV with thunderous applause in response. Masters and doctoral theses on gender equality and gender-based violence occupy a substantial space in university libraries.

Their value, however, lies more in the one-day joyous ceremony of graduation and when they are referenced for another new thesis or book on gender equality than in implementing the recommendations they make.

We have had summits on GBV. Revolutionary political speeches on violence against women are constantly being made, tough laws are promised by those in authority, and we are not short of television debates on this subject, particularly during the month of August.

In these speeches, debates and writings, GBV is often described as the second pandemic in South Africa.

This is an apt description if one recalls the chilling account of the murder of 23-year-old Nosicelo Mtebeni from Matatiele who was completing her law degree  at the University of Fort Hare. As if killing her was not enough, the murderer proceeded to chop her body (wamnqunqa) into small pieces.

We also remember 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule, who was eight months pregnant and was found dead hanging in a tree (exhonyiwe) last year. There are many other similar ghastly murders, to say nothing about daily violence and rape that do not lead to death.

While we describe GBV as a pandemic, there is no convincing indication that we are practically and decisively dealing with it as we do with Covid-19.  It is time that we narrow these insightful speeches and well researched theses down to understandable information and doable practices at home, at school and in church to reduce gender inequality and the concomitant violence with the aim of ultimately ending them.

We should advocate for policies in government and business that promote equity between women and men and between the girl child and the boy child.

I read for, example, that a girl child is likely not to do as well as a boy child in school because during menstrual periods she misses some classes. As schools feed children at school, could this physical support not include distribution of sanitary pads to girl children?

Could some other needed form of support that would put the girl child on par with the boy child not be considered?

Could the police not be more capacitated to respond to the situation of violence against women? Could special courts not be set up to immediately deal with violation of women?

Could the government not partner more with churches and provide them with resources and space to engage with this problem, instead of  trying to do it all alone and failing?

Drunkenness is noted as a major contributing factor to women violation. Could shebeens, as a condition for keeping their licences, not be expected to conduct regular mandatory workshops on gender equality and GBV?

If we care enough about this problem, platitudes and slogans must give way to actions that will make a difference.

The church is also not innocent of gender inequality and violence. Our court lists for prosecution cases includes pastors who have raped young women of their congregation.

My own church has come a long way and still has a long way to go on this matter of gender equality. In chapter 2 of his famous Summa, the angelic doctor, St Thomas Aquinas, clearly holds the view that women are ontologically inferior to men.

Though natural inferiority of women was never the official teaching of the church, practices of excluding women from some lay ministries like reading in the church, serving at the altar, and having their feet washed on Holy Thursday liturgy confirmed this view about women.

As  is clear, however, from Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “On the Dignity of Women” (Mulieris Dignitatem 1988), women are not second class in the church.

All lay ministries previously reserved for men are now open to both genders including leading priest-less services, distribution of communion, funeral services, leadership in parish pastoral councils, appointment to offices of the Pope (Dicasteries) in Rome and papal commissions.

Sr  Hermenegild, the former secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, is serving in two of these papal commissions, one on prevention of sexual abuse of minors and one  on the 2021 universal synod.

While such steps surely give reasons for hope, the road ahead is still very long, and we must all continue to adopt behaviours that will eventually bring an end to this pandemic.

Bishop Sithembele Sipuka is Catholic Bishop of Mthatha and president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops. He writes in his personal capacity.