Workshop discusses cultural practices affecting women
Participants in a workshop in the Upper West Region (UWR) to discuss negative cultural practices and traditional rites affecting the growth and development of women have unanimously agreed to collaborate with relevant agencies and organisations for the abolition of such practices.
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They mentioned the issue of early and forced marriages leading to teenage pregnancies, widowhood rites, female genital mutilation, low level of women’s involvement in decision-making, depriving women of inheritance, human trafficking and lukewarm attitude to girl-child education, as some of the challenges to the growth and development of women in the area.
Participants
The one-day workshop, which attracted 40 participants, including the various gender desk officers and women’s group leaders, was organised by the UWR Department of Gender under the sponsorship of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The UWR Director of the Department of Gender, Madam Mary A. Mwinsigteng, said the workshop was to bring to the fore the various cultural practices and traditional rites that affected the lives of women.
She said a number of women and girls suffered violence at home, workplaces, schools and other institutional setups, but were unable to complain, while others thought it was normal for women and girls to go through such sufferings.
She expressed concern over what she described as the high spate of reported cases of violence in the region and said statistics for the first and second quarters of the year indicated that most of those violent acts were perpetrated against innocent citizens, thereby forcing them to feel insecure in the region.
Statistics
She said, for instance, that between January and August this year, the region registered 43 cases of wife-beating as against 18 cases during the same period last year, adding that for sexual abuse, 13 cases were recorded in the region as against seven last year while early and forced marriage recorded eight cases as against three, within the same period the previous year.
She said cases of non-remittance increased from five within the same period last year to 17 and was sad that defilement cases had increased considerably with three cases registered in the Wa Municipality.
The Director said from the surface, it looked as if all was well with women but rural women were still subjected to such negative practices, while the cases of teenage pregnancy increased on a daily basis, with a number of women facing alarming levels of poverty.
Unity and empowerment
Madam Mwinsigteng said for such practices to come to a halt, women must come together and be empowered to fight against them, adding that the best method to fight such practices was through education, hence the need to uphold the education of the girl-child.
Addressing the workshop, Mrs Cate Amy Bob-Milliar, the Executive Director of the Upper West Rural Women Association, observed that some women contributed to challenges affecting them and created their own problems. She pointed out that in the cases of widowhood rites and female genital mutilation, for instance, it was the women who supervised the rites and the operations of the latter, adding that some women in most homes maltreated their maidservants so terribly.
She, therefore, called for a concerted effort to see a new society where there was social justice, human dignity and self-discovery of the people to be able to improve their living conditions.