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A woman exhibiting scares of domestic violence in Eastern Equatoria. (Photo: Root of Generations).
In light of an alarming rise in Gender Based Violence (GBV) in parts of Eastern Equatoria, a humanitarian organization urges the state to promote gender equality and rethink woman not just a wife bought with dowry, but a mother supporter, provider and a nurturer of children.
Grace Dorong, the Executive Director of Root of Generations (RoG), said women in South Sudan are treated based on the dowry paid to the family, not as someone’s mother.
Ms. Dorong said men in South Sudanese societies need to look at women more as the mothers of their children and accord them the same respect as they do to their mothers.
She also said GBV and protection working organizations need to transform the stereotypical language referring to women as “Just a woman”, or “marasakit,” in Arabic.
“These women are treated like this because they are looked at as wives, as someone that I bought and I have every right on her,” she said.
“But if we take it from the angle that she’s a mother, she’s mama, she’s your mother, then there is a little bit of respect to them than when you say a wife.”
“But we know that generally a woman is treated as just a woman. So yes, we’re trying to figure out how we can get the respect towards the women, emphasizing the fact that she’s a mother.” With support from Urgent Action Fund- Africa (UAF-A), ROG captured different voices of women;
Marline (not her real name) a victim of domestic violence said the wellbeing of women in the mentioned counties is equated to the number of dowries that were married off with.
“My husband paid a lot of cows to my parents, so I have no say in the dowry of my daughters”, she lamented.
Marline narrated incidents of unimaginable suffering in the hands of her husband, whom she says resorts to violence at the slightest of disagreement.
The domestic abuse was clearly manifested in the scares of old wounds all over her back as seen in a picture.
“My husband brought in a new wife, I was thrown out of my house, she was taken in. My children and I stayed under the shade near his home,” she narrated further.
She recounted that she was “raped multiple times” by her husband as a punishment – and her own daughter beaten to death for refusing to accept a forced marriage.
“My daughter was beaten to death because she refused the man she was forced to marry. Another daughter had her jaw born broken from the beating for refusing to marry a man they chosen for her.”
Ms. Marline said her culture has silenced many serious issues endured by women “because when we speak, we are considered as bad wives and killed or thrown out of the homes.”
Women in Budi, Ikwoto and Kapoeta South Counties are facing the highest rate of gender based violence in Eastern Equatoria State, according to RoG.
The NGO said this increases the vulnerability of women in the area – and leave them with no option but to commit suicide. Budi County recorded the highest number of suicide cases in 2023 and early months of 2024.
RoG said its services to GBV survivors in those areas are overwhelmed leaving many unattended too, many of such cases are committed by intimate partners, who use cultural beliefs to justify the crimes.
“Ikwoto County, Budi and many others are underserved by the protection programming,” Dorong said, More need to be done.
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