A cry for dignity

A 2015 report on harmful cultural practices in Namibia found that for some rural Namibian girls, the onset of menstruation marks the start of incest and rape, forced work and isolation among other degrading cultural demands. The report, which was submitted to a United Nations committee on the elimination of discrimination against women (CEDAW), found although there has been some progress in regard to beefing up legislation and policy to protect the rights of rural women, too many girls are still left “at the mercy of many discriminatory and oppressive customary laws.” Researchers found that in some OvaHimba and OvaHerero communities in Kunene, Otjozondjupa and Omaheke regions, “men have the right to sexual relations with their female cousins who have just commenced their menses.”Girls do not have the right to refuse sexual relations with their relatives as “this practice is not viewed to be incest or rape,” the study notes. Published by the Namibian non-governmental organisations forum (Nangof) trust, the report stated that rural women in Namibia “remain under the control of traditional (feudal) patriarchal family structures which are governed by customary law and ruled over by traditional authorities.”The continued practice of harmful cultural practices “encourages and sustains cultural views of women as subordinate to men and as objects to be used for men's sexual pleasure. They undermine women's autonomy and violate their human rights to life, dignity, personal security, health, and freedom from violence,” the authors wrote. High riskThese practices also place women at extremely high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/Aids.The study found that dry sex, where women use herbs to dry out and tighten the vagina for the sexual pleasure of men, is taught to young women in some Namibian communities, including the Zambezi and OvaHerero communities.Researchers also heard that in some Zambezi communities “girls are taught from around nine to ten years of age to stretch their labia minora, using sticks, string, stones and their hands to pull on their flesh, thereby causing swelling and sores.”Vaginal stretching is expected to be done throughout a sexually active woman's life based on the belief that “long labia are more sexually appealing and satisfying to a male partner, and a man will not stay with a woman who has not submitted to it.”Moreover, a major focus of initiation in many Zambezi communities is to teach girls how to sexually please their future husbands, and they are “sometimes tested for sexual readiness by male relatives.”Men in some communities are also taught that they can fall sick if exposed to women who menstruate, who have recently given birth, or miscarried.“The prevention of such illnesses is through physically isolating women and girls in separate huts and washing them with herbs.”Menstruating girls are also often forced to work hard to teach them “endurance as well as submission and subservience to their future husbands and in-laws.”Fatigue or protest is met with severe beating and other forms of violence. Cut upAnother female genital mutilation practice is the removal of growths in the vagina and anus from mothers of ill children, based on the myth that this could cure the child.“Yet women may be cut repeatedly whenever a child becomes ill, and there is often a lack of hygiene during this practice, with the same blade used on different people.”Other harmful practices listed in the report include the marking cleansing of widows, early, arranged and forced marriages, bridal payments and wealth and property and inheritance rights. The report's authors criticised the lack of progress in reviewing customary laws to ensure that they are in compliance with Namibian civil laws and the lack of research on the magnitude and types of harmful practices in Namibia.These issues were also addressed the UN CEDAW committee, in a 2015 report on Namibia.Namibia ratified the UN convention in 1992, and since then the CEDAW committee has repeatedly cited the need to address the impact of customary laws on women in Namibia. The Nangof report recommended that the Namibian government should ensure that all enacted gender laws and policies are fully implemented to help protect rural women across the country.Moreover, that the state should adopt and implement the customary marriages bill and commission research on harmful cultural practices in all communities in Namibia. JANA-MARI SMITH

A cry for dignity

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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A cry for dignity

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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