By Gaudensia Mngumi
THE right of every woman to live peacefully without abuses is stipulated in the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDEW). Furthermore, the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and of late, the Sustainable Development Goal 5.2 which emphasizes total eradication of all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030. Despite such instruments and global guarantees, Gender Based Violence (GBV) is deeply rooted in our society and elsewhere.
Although some men also fall victim of GBV, it’s mostly women and girls who endure the vice just because of their female gender identity. In our country, institutions of higher and tertiary education are adversely mentioned as places where GBV is prevalent. Some girls who have suffered abuse have reported being harassed sexually and emotionally while others have been physically abused by boyfriends. Interviews with some female universities students in Dar es Salaam recently indicate that victims experience various forms of violence from not only lecturers but their male colleagues with the common being negative comments on one’s body structure or looks in general.
This is unexpected to happen at universities but female students say it is common to see male students touch girls’ buttocks only to hide behind a joke and unfortunately most of these cases go unreported. During the climax of last year’s 16 days of gender activism to curb GBV, the Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE) deputy principal responsible for planning, finance and administration, Prof Method Samuel spoke publicly on the matter, urging GBV victims in higher learning institutions to speak out and report such cases instead of suffering in silence.
Despite the fact that male students and academic staff members have been in many cases mentioned in sexual violence cases at universities and colleges, one student who sought anonymity said some victims are responsible for their own assaults.
“Some female students do not put effort in learning. Instead, they expose themselves to lecturers or hard-working male students to help them what is widely known on campus as sexually transmitted grades.” “I know lazy girls who seduce lecturers by sending them their nude photos or videos but without exposing their faces. Some fall into trap but others resist the temptation.” Meshack Kapange, a retired teacher and investor in education sector in Mbeya region, said in an interview that GBV in learning institutions is perpetrated by academic staff members who lack moral standing.
“I think that this has something to do with the training of college tutors. The process needs to be improved to make them instructors with certain values,” he said. “Apart from good grades, educators should be vetted to see if they are people of good standing and character. Short of that, we will continue having student predators in our classrooms and lecture halls.” Kapange also alluded to the fact that there are some bad girls who have the audacity to seduce teachers even those old enough to be their parents. As a teacher, he knows all the tricks used by students to lure teachers.
“Some bold ones write love letters and give it to you in person but others insert the letters in their exercise books for you to see when marking,” he said. He said it takes a teacher who has been well-trained on how to behave given the role of an educator in society to resist such tempta[1]tions. For, the half-backed educator recruited on the basis of nothing but good grades is highly likely to fall into the trap. Suzan Lyimo, former MP and shadow minister for education who taught for years at Jangwani Secondary School in Dar es Salaam before retiring and joining politics, said GBV is a big problem at higher learning institutions but noted that victims should not be blamed even if they initiated it because there is option of rejecting the advances.
“We need to have intervention programmes to protect girls from GBV in higher learning institution because some of them go on cam[1]pus while still young and some teenagers can misbehave especially when there is no family around to counsel them,” she said. “Mind you, most of these young girls live on their own for the first time and some can squander that new-found freedom to all manner of bad things.” She proposes the need for higher learning institutions to introduce course counsellors to guide students all the time to help them smoothly manage their studies and emotions and hence protect them from GBV. “Course counsellors can play a pivotal role in guiding students because see new things for the first time including culture shock and strange environment yet they do not have experience on how to manage time tables, assignments deadlines, peer pressure and predators,” the retired teacher said.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
