The Mtwara Files
Leila Sheikh
The Mtwara Files were compiled
by this writer after conducting research in Mtwara Urban in 2009-2010 on the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) on household incomes, for REPOA which
was coordinated by Alice Nkhoma and Mary Rusimbi, both strong feminists and
research coordination specialists.
(a) Sexual Harassment and Rape
From the files perused at the
District Magistrate’s Court in Mtwara between 1998 and 2008, there were already
99 per cent acquittals of defendants of cases of sexual harassment and those of
rape.
In interviews the District Resident
Magistrate said there are three major contributory factors to the acquittals:
(i) Lack
of evidence from police charge sheets. This is due to the fact that women have not been given sufficient
information on maintaining evidence and added “It takes a while before women report cases of sexual violence. By then, evidence, if any, is destroyed.” Moreover, only DNA tests would prove whether
the semen sample is truly that of the perpetrator.
NB:
In Tanzania, there is only one DNA testing machine used in the office of the
Chief Government Chemist in Dar es Salaam. Even then, the DNA testing equipment is
mainly used by men to determine paternity of children over whom they have
doubts of having fathered. In this
respect, not only is there a gross lack of evidence/proof recording equipment
over forensic collection in cases of rape and of child sexual abuse in Tanzania
– the national budget has not made provisions for the purchase of more DNA
testing equipment, at least one for each region – there is also the issue of
patriarchy where men utilize such equipment negatively in order to establish
paternity. This is the opinion of the writer.
(ii) Lack
of training among police officers in interrogating victims of sexual violence –
the country hasn’t given sufficient funds or notice to training law enforcers
on the protocol of dealing with cases of violence against women.
(iii) Poverty
is the third factor where the perpetrator “settles”
with the victim out of court by paying her a certain amount of money and the
victim either withdraws the charges or does not appear during court proceedings
and often, the court gives ruling ex parte, without the victim in
attendance due to lack of testimony from her.
Though sexual violence is a
crime, and cases brought before the court are police cases with the victim
being the principal witness, without her corroboration in court, the court has
no option but to acquit the defendant.
On top of that, cases of
sexual violence are heard before the District Resident Magistrate’s Court in
Mtwara Municipality, even cases from other districts and women often do not have
funds to travel to court this is especially so for women from rural
communities.
Two officers of the Mtwara
District Court Registry who have worked in the Registry for over 20 years cited
the culture of “saving a woman/girl’s
honour” by marrying her off to her rapist.
Mzee Rajabu said it has to do
with poverty – the bride price from marrying off the rape victim to her rapist,
the payoff money for dropping the criminal charges is a major constraint in
prosecuting and sentencing sex offenders.
There is also the question of
“honour” which smacks of patriarchy
that once her rapist marries her, the victim sheds the stigma of being a “fallen woman”. Of course, marrying off a victim to her
rapist constitutes a crime, at least to this writer’s thinking, because he
would continually be raping her during the marriage. I could not get data on how long such
marriages survive, nor how many victims were “forced” to marry their rapists.
At the Mtwara Paralegal Center,
a branch of the Women Legal Aid Centre (WLAC), I was told that they try to
convince sex violence victims to pursue their claims in court but family and
societal pressure and stigma prevents most victims to remain silent or to
withdraw charges, especially if the victim is threatened with being ostracized
and isolated from her peers.
The files in the Mtwara
District Court Registry which this writer perused showed some defendants’
stance of saying “She’s my girlfriend
and we had a quarrel.” Or “I left her for another woman; she wants
revenge.” Or “She made me do it.”
The files did not give much
detail about the court proceedings as often, the victim failed to appear in
court to give evidence. There was,
however, one court record where the prosecutor asked the victim “Were you a virgin?” – A strange
statement indeed as the job of the prosecutor is to prove the defendant is
guilty of the charge, and not to bring into focus the victim’s sexual habits.
(b)
Domestic Violence
This writer perused the
reports of the WLAC Paralegal Center in Mtwara and these are the findings:
v Most cases of marital dispute
with eventual divorce involve domestic violence with one or more of the
categories mentioned above, as a factor.
The Paralegal Centre workers and volunteers said nearly 90 per cent of
the women who register at the Centre for legal aid are women who have been
abused emotionally or physically or verbally and over 95 per cent have
experienced economic abuse by being deprived of sustenance, shelter and medical
support.
v As the Chairperson of the
Mtwara Center put it “They (the women) come here complaining of having been
beaten “Bila sababu” without a reason, which means women have accepted that if
there is a reason, then they deserve to be beaten and of getting verbal abuse.”
Again, most victims refuse to
lodge formal complaints to instigate criminal proceedings out of fear of societal
reprisals by being ostracized by their communities.
A major factor of women abuse
is economic deprivation, the Center workers said, adding “Poverty makes women stay in abusive relationships because women have
few options.”
Though most ethnic groups in
Mtwara are supposedly matrilineal, they are definitely not matrifocal. Women
have low status especially in control of income and resources.
This writer learnt a new
popular terminology in Mtwara “kusafisha
ghala” – clearing the store. In
elaboration, some journalists, members of the Mtwara Press Club said “Men own
the land, they own the cashew trees, and they ‘own’ their wives. They use their wives to tend the cashew trees
and after harvest and crop sale, they get rid of the “old” wife and settle for a younger/newer wife.”
Income from the sale of cashew
is not shared with the wife who tended the farm; instead she is thrown out and
a new wife is brought in to replace the “tired
tractor.” This causes poverty among
women especially in a society where a “tired
tractor” is treated with scorn and other men would be loath to take such a
woman for a wife. Considering land
ownership is in the greedy and abusive hands of men, the belief that Mtwara is
a matrilineal; woman respecting society is a gross misinterpretation of reality.
Members of the Mtwara Press
Club discussed the issue of economic violence/deprivation which to a large
extent has contributed to women – they did not have proper data – to suffering
from clinical depression and sometimes mental illness.
“In fact the issue here is not
only physical violence”, they said, “It is economic violence which is more
widespread.”
In an interview with three
workers of Basic Needs – Tanzania, a civil society organization which deals
with support to victims of mental health and support to heal and rehabilitate
them, this writer learnt that nearly 60 per cent of the mental patients under
the care of Basic Needs – Tanzania are women.
The workers at Basic Needs –
Tanzania cited emotional stress, clinical depression and schizophrenia as being
among the most common mental diseases. They said the high rate of divorce caused by domestic violence
(including) the five categories mentioned above is a contributory factor to
mental illness among women. Again, this
researcher heard the saying “kusafisha
ghala”, which in effect means men use women/their wives to clear the
cashew tree farms, weed, etc. and after the seasonal sale of the crop, they get
rid of them.
Basic Needs – Tanzania cited
alcohol as another factor which contributes to violence against women. Consumption of alcohol is also seasonal. When they have sold the cash crop and have
cash, men consume more alcohol, using up family resources and when women
complain of being deprived of sustenance, they get beaten and thrown out and in
the process, they lose income, shelter and status in their communities. It seems having a husband, even an abusive
one, bestows status on a woman.
The Basic Needs – Tanzania
workers cited polygamy as form of violence against women, saying nearly 55 per
cent of their women patients suffer from clinical and social depression caused
by polygamy. The sad fact, said the
outreach coordinator, is society hasn’t been sensitised sufficiently to
perceive depression as a mental illness.
Polygamy also reduces the
family’s resources as the new wife/wives would have children increasing the
number of dependants in a household.
The stigma and discrimination
associated with mental illness is deeply entrenched among ethnic groups of
Mtwara and terms like “wee kichaa” –
“you are mad” – among mentally
challenged people are discouraged by Basic Needs – Tanzania, saying violence in
language increases stigma and discrimination.
A survey of various households
in Mtwara Mikindani by Basic Needs-Tanzania got the findings of children as
young as ten years of age taking care of a mentally ill parent, ostensibly a
mother, after being abandoned by the husband.
Basic Needs – Tanzania pointed
out Tanzanian society is not overly concerned about care to mentally challenged
patients. In fact, the national budget
does not take into consideration the needs of people suffering from mental
health.
A Social Welfare Officer of
the Mtwara Municipality says “Society tends to define violence against women
within the parameters of physical abuse, occasionally within the confines of
mental torture. Economic abuse and
deprivation of basic needs, poverty among women has never been addressed as a
form of violence.”
A woman guard at Mtwara
Harbours Authority said there is sexual harassment taking place at places of
work and women often succumb because of poverty. However, in the process, they suffer
emotionally and their productivity is greatly reduced, often leading to illness
like migraine, fatigue. Sometimes even
after succumbing, they lose their jobs either because the boss has lost
interest in them and are after other prey, or because they lack focus at work
and as a result, get sacked.
A Mtwara Development Officer
said women who are experiencing domestic violence have a higher rate of
absenteeism from work because of injury or depression. Such women often lose their jobs. After all, how many ‘Excuse Duty’ certificates can you produce in a week and get
believed by your boss?
At the Mtwara Municipal
Hospital, there were two women patients admitted in the ward. One had her jaw
and arm broken and the other had had kerosene stove thrown at her and her
clothes and body caught fire.
The Medical Officer in charge
in Mtwara Hospital cited examples of rape of mentally ill women. Various cases of pregnancy among women
suffering from mental health have been reported at the Mtwara General
Hospital. As one doctor at the hospital
said, “According to the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act (SOSPA 1998) it
is a criminal offence to have sexual intercourse with a mentally handicapped
woman yet we get such cases.”
Another example is child
sexual abuse by people they know like stepfathers, uncles, teachers, neighbours,
and family friends, people who are entrusted with the care and protection of children. A nurse said most cases of
violence against women go unreported. “They
don’t seek medical help unless there is serious injury.”
She said, they have learnt to
recognize the symptoms not only from the extent of physical injury like a
broken jaw, facial swelling, eye injury, broken limbs, etc., but also from the
mental and emotional stress the victims demonstrate while being examined. “We insist they get a PF3 and sometimes they
don’t come back when we ask them to get the PF3.”
In a random survey in Mtwara
Manispaa and Mikindani, among 12 women respondents, most denied having
experienced battery, though some said they get verbally abused.
I do not know whether it is
the culture of silence over violence against women, or whether they were
telling the truth.
The Regional Police Commander
and the District Crime Officer in Mtwara said the rate of violence against women in Mtwara is high but most cases go unreported because women fear stigma
and isolation from members of their community.
Poverty is closely linked to
VAW because abused, abandoned wives invariably become poor and without shelter.
Some respondents said “Men control the farms and the crops. We had no option but to form a group because
some of us are abandoned/divorced women and were thrown out of our marital
homes.”
Sheikh Mpwago of BAKWATA, Mtwara and
Sister Illuminata of the KKKT who runs a parish counselling programme said they
get between 7-9 cases of domestic violence per month. The Seventh Day Adventists Pastor said sometimes,
especially during the harvesting season, when men have money to buy alcohol and
get new wives, they get up to 12 cases per month. The religious leaders conceded that most
cases go unreported. “Intimate Partner Violence is so endemic
in Mtwara that when a woman marries, she leaves some of her personal belongings
in her parents’ house because she knows the marriage wouldn’t last”, say Social
Workers.
The Mtwara Paralegal Center said
regional and district and local government leaders ought to initiate conversations
on being cooperative in sensitising the public on violence against women.
For example, in the 2008 16
days of activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV), government leaders and members
of parliament did not attend the function though they were given ample notice
to arrange their schedules.
They said it is discouraging
because cooperation is needed to scale up the Response towards the elimination
of harmful practices and those government leaders and members of parliament are
key people in mobilizing the public, “having legislation is not enough. There is need for sensitisation through
community outreach. There is also need
to train law enforcers and the judiciary on the protocol to deal with Gender
Based Violence cases.”
