South Sudan: Stop gender war on women & promote their rights instead

This extract is from Sudanvotes, by Ating Benson Okello. Views expressed are the author’s own.

MAGWI, Eastern Equatoria State – Gender-based violence and discrimination, widely considered human rights violations, are a setback to nation building. It’s time to heed this truth in South Sudan.

Mary Atto says she has to pull extra weight to support her family because her husband won’t help. Her three daughters, Acen Helen, Amoo Jane and Aciro Susan would be in school if their father didn’t have other plans for them: early marriage. Fetching a good bride price is his idea of a decent income.

Aol Joyce was married off at 17 to a much older man who, by her account, abuses alcohol, mistreats her and refuses to take responsibility for their children. She would like to be trained as a tailor, but her husband forbids her from any occupation except domestic work.

Christine Atim said her husband’s drinking habits mean she alone has to make sure her children have something to eat.

Their situations are hardly unique.

Studies suggest at least one in every three South Sudanese women has been beaten, coerced into sex, denied her rights or otherwise abused in her lifetime. The perpetrator is often a member of the woman’s own family.

The awareness that women have suffered the brunt of society’s ills is nothing new. It was the leader of South Sudan’s freedom struggle, the late Dr. John Garang, who famously referred to southern Sudanese women as “the marginalised of the marginalised people.”

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