19 Oct 2014

Director of Men for Health and Gender Justice Organisation, Mr Thatayotlhe Molefe says ending violence against women and achieving gender equality are goals that originated within the women’s movement.

Speaking at a dialogue meeting with media in Gaborone recently, Mr Molefe said many people still thought of these goals as ‘women’s issues’ rather than parts of much broader concerns about human rights and social justice.

Therefore, Mr Molefe said the misconception kept men and boys out of the spotlight and placed the burden of responsibility on women and girls, at the same time diverting attention away from analysing the roots of violence and the role of maintaining an unequal power balance between men and women, hence patriarchy is always leading.

He noted that men’s violence against women had reached epidemic proportions in Botswana, between a quarter and two thirds of women in different studies reports having experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence.

However, he said notwithstanding widespread public concern about men’s violence against women, such violence was in part sustained by male attitudes, including sexual entitlement and victim blaming. “Women who experience sexual assault are at risk of HIV/AIDS than other women,” he said.

Although, the evidence was not conclusive, he said, research suggests that men’s violence limits women’s ability to effect the use of condoms in their sexual relationships.

He noted that there was need to involve men and boys as partners as part of the prevention strategy as they had the potential to become associates in bringing violence against women to an end.

“This needs to be tackled by active mobilisation of men to take part in protecting human rights (rights of women and girls) through creating a forum in which both women and men mutually discuss ideas and strategies,” he said. ENDS