Anglophone crisis:

Violence on women and girls on the rise

By Njodzefe Nestor

Launchers brandish book advocating eradication of gender-based violence

The North West Regional Delegate of Women’s Empowerment and the Family Wirba Asan has observed that the ongoing crisis in the North West and South West regions has aggravated violence against women and girls in the region.

He made the observation during the launching of a book titled “16 Stories For 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence” by the GRID Network of the Socio Economic Empowerment of Persons with disabilities of the CBC Health Board on Nov 25, 2017 at Nkwen Baptist Center in Bamenda.

                “Cases of rape, teenage pregnancies and outright violence abound especially as many girls are out of school. It is our wish that long lasting peace should return to the two regions and save all of us from this ugly situation” he said.

                The book was launched at part of activities to mark 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence observed every year from November 25 to December 10 aimed at galvanizing actions to end violence against women and girls around the world.

                The objective of the launching according to the coordinator of the GRID Network was to bring together different stakeholders in gender and disability and raise awareness on Gender Based Violence through the 16 stories project, share the stories of Women Disability who have experienced GBV and draw lessons on how to prevent it.

                The 62 page work is a collection of stories depicting the lives of young women and girls swept up in the whirlwind of violence, segregation, and rejection.

                The book contains 16 stories representing 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence with each story told on a specific day by   specified narrators.

                According to Emmanuel Bah Tokoh who reviewed the book during the launch, the  style used in writing the book is a parody of Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

He observed that while Chaucer satirizes the moral decadence of medieval English society,  “16 Stories For 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence” articulates, in a moving manner, the pain and humiliation suffered by victims of disability and gender-based violence.

                Narrated by experts and excellent writers as well as the victims themselves in some cases, the stories reflect in a shameful manner a society   in which disability is still seen as a domestic and social curse, a society in which unscrupulous and irresponsible men continue with unabashed impunity to rape and impregnate vulnerable girls and women not only to satisfy their sexual escapades but also to humiliate them.