Femicide a national crisis
The recent of spate of killings and the brutal violence being meted out to women and children in our country cannot be allowed to continue.
It is clear that domestic abuse is widespread and prevalent across the country, with many news reports detailing the trials and tribulations of Namibian women, who suffer cruelty, in most cases at the hands of their jealous lovers. On Friday, a 29-year-old man killed the mother of his two children and her sister.
He slit their throats before taking his own life.
At the coast, a police officer allegedly shot and wounded his ex-lover on Thursday evening. Disappointingly, there has been deafening silence from the powers that be authorities and other influential sectors of our society. Most Namibian men have seemingly also elected to keep quiet and not speak out against the devastating scourge of violence against women and children.
This small but vast country of ours, with a tiny population, has undergone a frightening moral decline over the years, and one has to ask whether we are fighting a losing battle against gender-based violence. In the face of staggering violence statistics, policies have been designed to curb this scourge.
As a nation, we need to stand together to stop this social and moral decay, while ensuring that our women and children do not become soft targets for thugs committing heinous crimes.
We have decried moral decay for so long, and the culture of widespread sexual violence and rape must stop. Sexual violence and the killing of women has reached crisis proportions and we can no longer pretend.
As much as we agree that moral regeneration is urgently required for our nation, we cannot allow ongoing attacks against women to continue unabated. We are sitting with a major crisis on our hands and the time to act is now. A holistic and multi-pronged approach is needed as a matter of urgency. Enough is enough!
It is clear that domestic abuse is widespread and prevalent across the country, with many news reports detailing the trials and tribulations of Namibian women, who suffer cruelty, in most cases at the hands of their jealous lovers. On Friday, a 29-year-old man killed the mother of his two children and her sister.
He slit their throats before taking his own life.
At the coast, a police officer allegedly shot and wounded his ex-lover on Thursday evening. Disappointingly, there has been deafening silence from the powers that be authorities and other influential sectors of our society. Most Namibian men have seemingly also elected to keep quiet and not speak out against the devastating scourge of violence against women and children.
This small but vast country of ours, with a tiny population, has undergone a frightening moral decline over the years, and one has to ask whether we are fighting a losing battle against gender-based violence. In the face of staggering violence statistics, policies have been designed to curb this scourge.
As a nation, we need to stand together to stop this social and moral decay, while ensuring that our women and children do not become soft targets for thugs committing heinous crimes.
We have decried moral decay for so long, and the culture of widespread sexual violence and rape must stop. Sexual violence and the killing of women has reached crisis proportions and we can no longer pretend.
As much as we agree that moral regeneration is urgently required for our nation, we cannot allow ongoing attacks against women to continue unabated. We are sitting with a major crisis on our hands and the time to act is now. A holistic and multi-pronged approach is needed as a matter of urgency. Enough is enough!
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Namibian Sun
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