Discriminatory cultural practices inhibit women’s rights
Some cultural practices in the Upper West Region have been described as discriminatory, since they inhibit the rights of young girls and women.
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According to the Women’s Manifesto, certain people use culture to justify discriminatory practices against women and other social groups, while some Ghanaian proverbs, which are passed off as conventional wisdom, express gender biases and reinforce discrimination against women.
Acts of discrimination against women include, forced marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), elopement, expensive dowry (bride price), purification rites for defiled women, widowhood inheritance and women’s inability to inherit property, especially land, because of the patrilineal inheritance system.
FGM
Female Genital Mutilation is still being practised in some Zongo communities in the region and to avoid being seen, the parents of these babies smuggle them out of the country. For fear of being caught, parents who are guilty of the offence do not send their babies to the child welfare clinic in order to avoid attracting the attention of health officials.
According to Ms Mary Mwinsigteng, the acting Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, FGM and fistula leave victims with life-shattering and devastating effects. She said both conditions had the tendency to undermine the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3 which relates to gender equality and women's empowerment.
Forced marriage
Another troubling cultural practice is forced marriage, and the case of a 16- year-old girl, who would be referred to in this article as Memuna, demonstrates the plight of victims of forced marriages.
After completing junior high school in a town in the Upper West Region with flying colours, Memuna entered the senior high school with the ambition to study Science.
Due to her interest in Science and Mathematics, Memuna had the chance to benefit from a number of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) camps in the region when she was in the JHS. Based on her performance, her teachers and friends predicted that she would have a bright future.
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Unknown to her, she had been betrothed to one Mohammed, an elderly man, who hails from the community. One morning, Mohammed visited her parents, and in the absence of Memuna, performed the necessary customary rites. Memuna was left in a state of shock when she was asked to accompany her husband to a village near Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region to live with his other wives and children, some of whom were older than Memuna. She fell onto the floor and started crying.
She later became a mother of two, and as a new wife, her husband prepared a large plot of land and asked her to cultivate it and use the proceeds to cater for herself and the children, but she could not do it, and that made her incur the displeasure of her husband and the other wives and children. They called her all sorts of names and she became miserable in the house.
The husband, who could not continue to look after what he described as a lazy wife, promptly gave her the marching-off orders together with the children, and that was after six years of marriage, when Memuna was 22 years. Because of her early marriage, she was forced out of school and had not entered into any profession. What future awaits her?
Cost of dowry
Dowries in the Upper West Region are also very expensive, especially in the Nandom District. These include cows, guinea fowls, fowls and 360 cowries, among others. For that reason, a man who manages to pay such a dowry considers his wife as his ‘personal property’ or ‘slave.’ The women thus go through a terrible ordeal in the man’s house.
With the widowhood rites, a woman who refuses to undergo an ordeal such as being smeared with clay, not having her bath for several months, and also refuses to stay away from any work on the death of her husband is regarded as an adulterous person who was not faithful to husband while he was alive.
To avoid the embarrassment, every woman would want to prove her faithfulness. Traditionally, if a widow is lucky, she could be married to the deceased’s brother and this is termed " bye-law". If not, she is left to care for her children and herself. This practice is prevalent in the Lawra, Jirapa, Lambussie/Karni and Daffiama/Bussie/Issa districts.
If a married woman is considered as adulterous, she is made to undergo ‘purification rites’ that are dehumanising.
Even with issues affecting their health and child-bearing, women are relegated to the background, thereby leading to the high rate of maternal mortality in the region. A woman cannot just take a decision and practise family planning without the consent of her husband.
Need for intensive education
Intensive education is needed to address the problem, and NGOs such as the Community Development Alliance (CDA), ActionAid, Care International, Plan Ghana, Pronet-North and Amasachina are engaged in public sensitisation programmes. They have intensified advocacy and training programmes to build the capacities of women in decision-making and support them with livelihood development programmes.
The Chief Executive Officer of CDA, Mr Yusif Kanton, says the people are made to understand that women are not subordinate to men, but also have the right to participate in decision-making, women empowerment, acquisition of land and own assets such as cattle.