Violence Against Women
At least 50 editors from both the electronic and print media in the country are scheduled to meet in Dar es Salaam today to discuss what media can do to contribute to the fight against gender-based violence in the country.
A statement availed to media and signed by Tanzania Media Women’s Association (Tamwa) executive-director Ananilea Nkya said the editors would brainstorm and agree on what their respective media outlets could do to mobilise rural and urban dwellers to prevent gender-based violence especially violence against women.
She said they would also discuss the kind of work the media could produce to ensure survivors of gender based-violence got health services, counselling, legal aid and shelter whenever necessary.
The meeting will also provide media leaders an opportunity to understand the magnitude of gender-based violence in the country and some of the initiatives being undertaken to stop it.
Tamwa, in partnership with the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), has organised the editors’ session as part of national campaign activities meant to prevent violence against women, girls and children for having a far reaching negative impact on the social and economic wellbeing of the family and the national at large.
Gender-based violence acts include rape, forced anal penetration, child marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, battery, child abandonment which leads to street children and denial of widow inheritance rights.
Nkya said Tamwa believed the media had power to effectively investigate and disseminate information that could stimulate public debate and action for different actors to stop gender-based violence.
The actors, according to her include local authorities, councillors, MPs, police, courts, policy makers, civil society organisations, development partners, various ministries, religious institutions, gender-based violence survivors and the public at large can be pressurised to take necessary measures to curb violence.
Inter-Agency Standing Committee defines gender-based violence as “An umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed differences between males and females.”
Gender-based violence is a direct consequence of unequal power relations between men and women and it legitimises women’s subordination in society and has a far reaching negative impact on the wellbeing of women, girls and children.
