Examine Causes of Gender Based Violence Amongst Couples in Zimbabwe and in Your Answer Suggest the Measures to Address This Problem

...

the help of their spouses. Also on such notices most of these men take out their frustrations on women since they are the ones who constantly ask of basic food commodities such as tomatoes, bread, cooking oil and vegetables among others. Also dependency of women to their men has been as a result of other men who refuse their women to go look for employment be it formal or informal sectors. This is because most these men prefer to keep their wives on their leash, so that they continue to control them economically. Thus resulting to the economic abuse of women by their husbands, economic abuse also necessitates for the increase in poverty among women which in some cases also result in another form of abuse which is emotional and psychological abuse since they don’t have enough resources for them to look after themselves and children. On another scale of analysis, dependence have continued since the women under abuse have not been able to report their Cases to the police in fear of poverty, also among the reported cases they have often been withdrawn. Despite the fear for poverty, it’s not all women who prefer to leave their marriages but rather want to end GBV. Hence the government had managed to ensure that budgets, programmes and policies and human resource commitments reflect its thrust to deal with domestic violence by way of allocating effort and resource towards improving girls and women’s disadvantaged position in society. This has been a measure taken in countries such as Cambodia, India and Peru have exploited numerous e-commerce as propounded by the (World Bank, 2003). Also this was a fundamental strategy which the government have taken as it has ceased women from dependency.

Furthermore, another perpetrator for GBV is some cultural and religious practices which have enhanced male dominance over the societies. In churches such as the Johanne Marange sect and the Masowe eChishanu, are one of the leading religious churches to which have aggravated for male dominance. This has been through their beliefs of women subordination through restricting them on church participation and also encouraging early child marriages on girls. Also the patriarchal nature of their system also condemn the female to question their male members in terms of authority since it is believed to be divine integrated. Thus most of the male counterparts engage into polygamous marriages as part of the system, to which at some point some of the females might be prone to HIV/AIDS through the use of unprotected sex of multiple sexual partners. Also it cannot be ignored of the fact that early child marriages especially on girls who are given away to elder men twice their age, also calls for GBV through economic abuse, sexual abuse as well as physical abuse as their ages make them to be undermined of any authority within their marriages. Also the cultural perceptions of the Zimbabwean societies has made more women to accept GBV as similarly normal to everyday living standards. According to a Research carried out by Mukananga et.al (2014) on an unidentified woman, she stated that “every woman knows that at one point in a marriage you have to be beaten by your husband. We were always told when we grew up that a husband who does not beat you does not love you.” With these cultural belief which are as a result of male dominance over women has rather put the more on to the issues of GBV. With more of cultural intrusions which cause GBV among couples many women also tend to silent on those notions of GBV as it is believed that a good wife does not share any issues around her marriage among strangers. In support with the above notion Dobash and Dobash (1979) on an article by Dutton.G (2005) put it “men who assault their wives are actually living up to cultural prescriptions that are cherished in Western Societies and they are using physical force as a means to enforce that dominance.” However on the other hand issues of GBV have been a contested debate on whether it is emanating from cultural or religious practices as a way to make up measures towards such actions. According to the Zimbabwe National Gender Based Violence Strategy (2015) states that “Zimbabwe is party to the Millennium Development Goals and has prioritized goal number three on achieving gender equality and empowerment of women.” In this case many laws and legislations have been put forward to protect women from the issues of GBV in Zimbabwe. Although GBV laws have been on the statutes for several years, the general public is still not fully aware of their provisions and various misconceptions about these laws exist. But experience has shown that when people become aware of the provisions of the laws, such as on child marriage for instance, they are willing to abide by the laws without recourse to the courts. This highlights the importance of awareness raising as a strategy for preventing some forms of GBV. This has been in the form of edutainment for instance the song by Oliver Mutukudzi called Tozeza Baba, which acted as a message for men to stop physical violence among women also the use of billboards and TVs and Radio stations. Which act as awareness schemes which propagate for social justices despite gender disparities.

Moreover, another significant factor which has been a cause of GBV is the low level of education among women. Mukananga (2014) opines the view that “level of education of a woman was inversely related to the woman’s vulnerability to physical abuse.” Low levels of education among women has been as a result of cultural factors which render a girl child from pursuing further studies in education such as early child marriages and also at some point economic difficulties which later make them get married as a way to love away from poverty. With more of them married to the educated men, men have taken advantage of their women’s lack of knowledge on judicial systems which can help them on issues of GBV. Also with most of these uneducated women, they have no other sources of income since they are unemployed and no adequate qualifications thus they depend mostly on their husbands. Henceforth on such issues of reporting their spouses, they will be limited with financial backup on hiring lawyers in order for them to partake proper legal actions. Also most of these women fear stigmatization from their husband’s family and also to the society, and this rather has been a dilemma among women who have mainly been disadvantaged with low levels of education. Since low levels of education have been as a result of both cultural factors and beliefs which subordinates a girl child from education the Non-Government Organizations and the government of Zimbabwe they all come up with methods and ways to solve the social challenges of GBV. An example can be eluded from the UNFPA Zimbabwe which has developed a new tool on engaging Men and Boys on GBV discussions. In Harare