Even Men Are Domestically Violated-NWC

The president of the National Women Council Francesca Tengera has said that new findings indicate that even men have been brutally domestically violated.

Tengera was speaking to igihe.com in a separate interview after addressing the press at the launch of 16 days of campaign against gender based violence.

She said that available statistics indicate that at least 94 men were brutally beaten by their spouses though women are still largely violated brutally with 430 women violated this year.

“Women are not only the victims but men too. this year only 430 women were brutally beaten by their spouses and 94 men in the same way,” Tengera gave part of the statistics.

Physical assaults were found to be among the leading form of domestic violence resulting to loss of lives with 83women and 60 men killed this year.

Tengera said that there are still lack of one’s awareness on their rights is making the matter worse; “just imagine 20 women and 31 men committed suicide simply because they couldn’t stand being tormented and others divorced and left family because they didn’t know where to present their cases.”

“Women are most affected that’s why we intend to focus more on sensitizing them on their rights, especially on owning property,” she said.

Emmanuelle Ingabire the focal point of gender based violence at Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe a women rights activists Non-Governmental Organization, called for the abolition of laws and cultural practices that oppress women.

“Rights over land for instance is a major issue, I can’t believe there are areas where women up to now are denied fair shares of land during inheriting process, a similar practice is seen in men who deny their women to own property like houses, cars etc,” Ingabire remarked.

Prior to the campaign’s launch there was a walk from Kacyiru roundabout to the Amahoro national stadium, in the afternoon that involved high profiled women leaders in the country followed by a football match between high ranking women leaders from the government versus their counterparts from civil society.

Ends