Stop the injustice!

Among acts that can be defined as abuse of human rights, the most pervasive is violence against women.

According to the United Nations definition, "any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women (and girls), including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life" is violence against women and girls.

It is also considered to be one of the most frequent human rights violations and so every government must of necessity work to protect its girls and women from such harm.

All humans have the right to life, the right not to be tortured or treated in an inhuman and degrading way, the right to respect in both private and family life and the right not to be discriminated against.

Unfortunately, certain norms, beliefs, attitudes and cultural practices breach these rights audaciously.

This sad storyline is depicted in the soap opera, Faltu, currently showing on TV3 in the evenings. Interestingly, most of these TV drama series showcase the real obstacles that most girls and women have to brave through to find fulfilment and meaning in life. Yet the injustice continues unashamedly.

In this particular Indian series, this beautiful child is given a name which means ‘useless’, out of her parents' frustration at the birth of a third girl and a stillborn twin son.

In Ittarpur, where she is supposed to be hailing from, girls are already considered useless and so such a name is normal. Such a name already condemns her existence and identity.

These and many more experiences that define her life in the movie are essentially the reasons why organisations, such as, the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FIGO) and its Committee on women facing crises, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Medical Women Association of Ghana (MWAG) and the Society of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists of Ghana (SOGOG), among others, cannot keep calm during the global 16 days of activism to end violence against girls and women.

These days are marked globally from November 25 to December 10 each year to bring to the fore the injustices and human rights abuses that women face in communities, like that of the fictional Faltu, and even right here in Ghana where certain norms rob girls and women of their dignity.

Women in crises, such as refugees, women in prisons and those living with chronic diseases and disabilities are not exempt from maltreatment.

In some situations, girls and women are sexually violated by caregivers, spouses, employers, lecturers and other more powerful people to receive some favour.

Other forms of sexual violence include rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and forced pregnancy.

Forced marriages, female genital mutilation, maltreatment of female house helps (as happens in certain countries where some Ghanaian women flock to work in their bid to seek greener pastures), transnational trafficking and human slave markets are all serious violations of multiple human rights which society must clamp down on.

In the movie, Faltu faces ill-treatment and rejection from everyone around her, mocked in school and the community because of her gender, birth order and passions till fate smiles on her when she meets a destiny helper who ends up as her husband — a very happy ending for Faltu.

Unfortunately, this “lived happily ever after” story is not the reality of many underprivileged girls and women who face these challenges through no fault of theirs.

A society which does not protect, respect and honour its women can have no claim of being civilised —Sadhguru. All women deserve better.

The writer is a Child Development Expert/ Fellow at Zero-to-three Academy, USA.
E-mail: nanaesi_19@yahoo.co.uk