Understanding Gender Based Violence

In this episode, Kemi Okenyodo and Professor Atsenuwa explain the concept of Gender Based Violence and unveil the cultural power asymmetries enabling it in Nigeria.

Transcript

Voiceover  0:00
You're listening to partners united on gender brought to you by the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation with support from the MacArthur Foundation.

Kemi Okenyodo  0:09
Institutionalised gender based violence is a significant challenge for women in Nigeria, the culture of sexual harassment in the workplace and on university campuses poses a serious threat to the well being and empowerment of young women in the country. Sexual Violence creates unsafe spaces for women destroys their self esteem impedes their personal and professional development, and institutionalised harassment such as sex for grades rigged sex educational system against women and undermines the credibility of their qualification. My name is Kemi Okenyodo, I am the Executive Programme Officer at the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation. Welcome to our first episode on the Gender Justice Podcast. Our guest today is Professor Ayo Atsenuwa, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Development Studies, University of Lagos. Welcome to the podcast.

Please, can you enlighten us? What is gender based violence?

Professor Ayo Atsenuwa  1:12
Okay, Kemi, let me say thank you once again, for having me on. And I think this is going to be an engaging conversation because it's very, very contemporary, it is germane. And

I hope that this conversation can contribute to deepening the understanding of what it is that we have happening around us. So what's gender based violence? Gender based violence is the violence that is targeted at a person simply because of their gender, either the gender they identify with, or the gender they're identified with. So what makes it different from every other form of violence, is simply that it is premised on that devaluation of that gender. And in this particular case the devaluation, or the diminishing of the status of one gender, in this case, the female gender. So gender based violence, simply speaking, is violence is targeted at one gender, and it would encompass sexual violence, which tends to be more targeted at women. It would encompass spousal abuse, which tends to feature women more as the victims. It would also include, you know, it would include abductions in situations of conflict.

Kemi Okenyodo  2:48
Thank you so much. Prof. Why is gender based violence a problem?

Professor Ayo Atsenuwa  2:53
Gender based violence is a problem, largely because it is a manifestation of the inequities that we find in society. In turn, it reinforces those inequities, you find a situation where somebody thinks that a female has offended him. And he thinks that the way to teach her a lesson is to rape her, or somebody thinks that a woman has committed stone something wrong, and thinks that the way to punish her is to unclothe her publicly. You rarely find men fight publicly and then the next thing is you want to remove his pants, so that you can shame him, and you can show his genitals. But that is a way of treating women consistently, so that you can shame them. So what makes it a problem is that it really communicates that in that society, where that is tolerated, in that relationship where that is tolerated or excused, the message is that there's a validation of the perception that, that gender, that woman needs to be treated that way. And it is a whole devaluation of not just the person who is being victimised, but the entirety because she's not being treated as she, she's been treated as woman. And the danger with that is that when others see it tolerated, impunity is fostered. And it just remains that way. Aside from that, you know, it's it's also increases vulnerability  which affects the quality of the life of those who are at risk of gender based violence. Because you are at risk of gender based violence you probably continue to make decisions about your life. So let's take what's happening in the North East, for example, or the north of Nigeria, genuinely girls are more vulnerable to being abducted or were more vulnerable. And so it was more likely to be girls who were dropped out of school because they do not want to take that chance. So it continues to... it's pernicious. And it just continues to provide validation for other forms of violence. And it is it is also a problem because you know, at the end of the day, it's very costly for all of society. It's very costly. It dehumanises all of us in society. It doesn't just dehumanise the gender that is targeted. It dehumanises, because it sends the message that we're ready to treat the other as inferior. And that suggests that we ourselves have a problem - whoever is perpetrating that has a problem.

Kemi Okenyodo  5:56
Thank you very much, ma. From what you have told us now, you've shed more light on the fact that gender based violence is a problem because of the inequalities we have in the society. And some of these inequalities are perpetuated based on accepted practices, but cultural practices that we seem to have accepted, that has become a norm, that maybe we are not aware of,  that are perpetuating, or reinforcing some of these vulnerabilities.

Professor Ayo Atsenuwa  6:31
I think I understand what it is that you were trying to speak about. Basically, it's like the role that cultural attitudes, values and practices play in enabling gender based violence. Yes, cultural practices are possibly the major enabler. You know, I started out by talking about the values placed on the male and female in traditional society. And so it's like, what women do is regarded as inferior. So let's take for example, women's work is regarded as an inferior type of work. You find it continuing even today, because in the computation of GDP, you know, women's work is still not captured. And so women's contribution to GDP seems insignificant, because quite a number of... quite a huge portion of the work that we do is in the domestic sphere, which is not really computed. So now moving from there, you find that because there's that valuation - culturally sustained - that one is superior, and one is inferior, we tend to pass it on as the values. We pass it on, unwittingly, we pass it on, we provide tolerance for, you know, inequality. Whether we say it's inequality, whether we say it's inequity. Whichever it is. We provide the justification that allows us to provide the validation for or the legitimization of gender based violence. We teach it spoken and unspoken in the way that we culture our society. And that is why I will say that culture is the greatest enabler.

So the perception is that, for example, the two in marriage are not equal. One is superior, one is inferior. One makes a decision the other only implements decision. So you get things like "When your husband was speaking waiting to also keep quiet?" "Why did you dress that way?",  "Why did you... Why did you defy that male?" You know, "Why did you Why did you do that?" And it's almost like rationalising, you know, the violence and then passing responsibility on to the victim as though the victim brought it on. "If you didn't wear what you were wearing", "if you didn't go to school, you know, if you stayed at home, you would not have been assaulted on the way to school". "That's why we're saying girls should not be forward".  So you get to the workplace and, you know, it's the same thing. It's, you know, so it's the it's a cultural tolerance for violence, or let's put it this way, the cultural preparedness to excuse violence, and not to call out violence and not to call out perpetrators of violence, because there's validation or legitimization or excuse for the the violence against a particular gender.

Kemi Okenyodo  10:17
Prof we have talked about a definition of gender based violence. We've looked at the causes of gender based violence and its impact on the society broadly and within the workplace. How can we deal decisively with gender based violence?

Professor Ayo Atsenuwa  10:35
I think that if we're going to deal decisively with gender based violence, we have to do three very important things. And all three are equally important and they must take place simultaneously.

The first thing we need to do is we need to debrief society.  We need to unpack that cultural validation of gender based violence. And that requires a lot of education, and an education that debriefs and education that then replaces, you know, that is targeted and aimed and structured, well structured to deliver a reorientation. We just can't assume that because people go to school, that they will then get debriefed of that except it is, you know, it's, it's targeted, it is designed. You can't assume that because people go to church or they go to mosque, they're not going to do that. It's some level of programming that we want to achieve. And we must structure it. We must design it. We must bring in all the stakeholders in that regard.

The other thing we need to do is that we need to empower the at risk population when we talk of GBV. We need to empower the at risk population. There is a high tolerance threshold for gender based violence. Although I would say that younger women are challenging that. But historically, the tolerance threshold for gender based violence has been high. We need to empower women and girls in such a way that they do not tolerated, they do not ignore and they recognise it when it's happening. And they are able to speak out against it and also assist them to reduce their risk vulnerability. So for example, let's talk about why women will take a lot of domestic violence, which is largely a form of gender based violence. And that is because most women feel that they are trapped. There is the stigmatisation of women who are not married, although generally on the decrease, but it is still there. But let's talk about the economic power issues. So a woman who is facing gender based violence in form of sexual violence, or in form of domestic violence, broadly speaking, physical violence, but is dependent on the person that the perpetrator of the violence and in this society, where there is almost no way out, we find that we also talk about women on women gender based violence, because the women are enforcing some traditional culture some norms or some standards against other women. and here, I'm talking largely about widowhood practices. I'm talking about violence on maybe domestic servants, who unfortunately tend to be more of the girl child and the like. But we also need to enable women, empower women to be able to get out because a lot of gender based violence also takes place in intimate partner relationship settings. A lot does take place there. And it's more difficult for women to get out of this context, because of the asymmetry of power. And this time, I'm talking of not just of the political power, but the economics. Too many women are trapped in relationships that are characterised by gender based violence because they are economically dependent. And finally, I think I just must emphasise that it is not enough to prohibit gender based violence. It is critically important that we signal to society that we're committed to enforcing the prohibition by punishing perpetrators, by sanctioning perpetrators,

Kemi Okenyodo  14:56
Thank you so much prof. With this, we've come to the end of our discussion on today's attacks on gender based violence once again, I'd like to thank Professor, Ayo Atsenuwa of the University of Lagos for making out time to be with us today. I'd like to encourage our listeners to visit our whistleblowing platform. www.genderjustice.org.ng to report cases of sexual gender based violence on the campuses of our tertiary institutions. Once again, thank you. Thank you Prof.

Professor Ayo Atsenuwa  15:36
Thank you very much, Kemi. Thank you for having me.

Voiceover  15:39  
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