Sexual abuse of women in Nigeria has always been topical, but the degree of institutional and societal response to the malaise has largely remained incommensurate, writes RUTH CHOJI.
While abuse of women continues to evolve, by assuming new forms, the collective consciousness to keep track on the malaise seems not to be advancing in the same measure.
Over the years the variants of such abuses, primarily rape and sexual assault, have further been broken down into; rape or attempted rape; touching your body or making you touch someone else’; incest or sexual contact with a child; someone watching or photographing you in sexual situations; someone exposing his or her body to you, according to a gender-based website, womenhealth.gov.
The site added that “sometimes, sexual violence is committed by a stranger. Most often, though, it is committed by someone you know, including a date or an intimate partner like a husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend.”
However, a recurring variant of abuse against women involving government task force has caught the attention of some stakeholders in Abuja; a trend that has exposed women of all ages and profession to sexual victimization.
Renowned as the fourth largest city in Nigeria and often advertised as the best purpose-built city in Africa’, Abuja is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and one of the wealthiest in Africa.
And like most budding cities, it has been been dealing with the developmental challenges, migration and resultant spike in crime. Naturally too, FCT, being the seat of political power, has since become a financial hotspot for prostitutes, who target political bigwigs and contractors; their aides and cronies are not left out.
Disturbed by the rising activities of these “women of easy virtue” in its cities, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), in 2011, declared a total war against prostitution.
The FCTA, which sees to the administration the metropolis, engaged its agencies, the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Social Development Secretariat (SDS), with coordination and logistics provided by a non-governmental organiztion, the Society Against Prostitution on Child Labour in Nigeria (SAPCLN), over the task.
The task force driven by slogans like “zero tolerance for prostitution” and accompanied by armed law enforcement personnel searched the streets at night, identified and apprehended sex workers with the aim of rehabilitating them accordingly.
Soon after, reports about the molestation and abuse of women from all works of life emerged. Amid the legal complexities in identifying and apprehending a prostitute, hues and cries trailed the activities of the task force.
A freelance journalist, Alkasim Abdulkadir in his report, “AEPB: From street cleaning to morality policing” pointed out that the activities of the task force gravitated into targeting women of all ages and social classes in the FCT.
He added that “the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund and the National Human Rights Commission reeled out petitions of victims and litany of abuses ranging from assaulting on law students attending mandatory Law School dinners, employees of Airtel attending a birthday party, a banker exiting a shopping mall, people sitting inside or exiting their cars, and even women standing in front of offices or residences at all hours of the evening have been forcibly abducted and taken to purported installations of law enforcement such as the Area 10 Sports Complex.
“There, the women either buy their freedom or are tortured into ‘confessing’ and forcibly transferred to an alleged rehabilitation camp for purported sex workers maintained by the Society against Prostitution and Child Labour in Nigeria (SAPCLN) in Arco Estate, Sabon Lugbe.”
Most researchers show that women who are sexually abused may suffer serious health problems, ranging from sexually transmitted infections, stomach problems, and ongoing pain. Emotionally too, they stand the risk lapsing into depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Worried by this trend of abuse by a multi-agency government task force, some stakeholders decided to produce a documentary, titled silent tears.
It is a documentary that aims to examine and uncover the truths behind these serious violations against women resident in the Federal Capital. It also gives a glimpse into the society’s perception of sexual and physical abuse on women encouraged by or perpetrated by security officials across the country.
The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and Amateur Heads Productions would premiere Silent Tears, on International Women’s Day,the 8th of March 2016, at the Silverbird Galleria, Abuja.
Silent Tears screened at the 5th African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in November 2015, it won The Audience Choice Award.
The production of Silent Tears by Amateur Heads was supported through a grant from OSIWA. This same collaborative effort was behind the award winning documentary, ‘Fuelling Poverty’ which uncovered the fuel subsidy scam of 2012.
Silent Tears would be aired on major television channels across the country. The 30-minute video incorporates expert views and features high profile interviews from, Ordinary Ahmad Isah of Brekete Family, Ayisha Osori (OSIWA Board Chair) and Maryam Uwais MFR, Dr. Chidi Odinkalu immediate past Chair Governing Council, NHRC.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to interact with the filmmaker. This compelling film aims to raise awareness of the pervasive mentality that fosters such negative actions towards women while inspiring behavioural change.
Produced by Mr Ishaya Bako, an award winning filmmaker, the short documentary examines and uncovers the truths behind the violation of women in the F.C.T by a taskforce set up by the FCTA to clean the streets off sex workers.
Bako said about the documentary “It intricately weaves the stories of different women from different backgrounds from across the city exposing unique insights about our society.”
He believes that “violence against women has become quite casual and almost pedestrian in our society”.
Bako said that women in our society need to be treated with dignity rather than abducted, molested and abused by law enforcement officials.
“It is a documentary that questions a society’s apathy to this victimization but is also in conversation with the few people that dare challenge this apathy.
“I chose to make this film because I’ve observed that violence against women has become quite casual and almost pedestrian in my community.
“Gender based violence is a broad and significantly complex subject matter, but the very special nature of the themes explored in the film is a story I believe needs to be told.
“I hope this film lends a voice to the conversations already started on the way women are perceived and treated in our society but also challenges the apathy seen in the society towards the issue of violence against women.”
For what it is worth, the documentary is expected to continue the age long discussion over a malaise that has morphed with the negative involvement of authority figures.
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