ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Half of Ethiopian women are victims of domestic violence, [the other half are kept poor and destitute by Woyanne] the country’s “justice minister” Dimegn Wube said in a statement received by AFP Saturday.
“The violence being committed against children and women is widespread,” she said, adding that women faced various forms of violence ranging from physical harm to death.
She urged “stakeholders to fight domestic violence that is affecting half of Ethiopian women.”
“Sources indicate that 79 percent of gender-based violence is committed in Ethiopia due to lack of education and the economic dependence of women on men,” she said.
Ethiopia is the poorest country in the Horn of Africa with around 81 million inhabitants, half of them women.
Under the constitution they enjoy the same rights as men, but traditional social structures remain deeply entrenched and do women no favours.
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FORUM | 12 Comments
Interesting statistics, Elias. Can you please ask the Injustice Minister what percentage of the domestic violence, that is inside Ethiopia (as opposed to international violence as in Somalia) is committed by Woyanne? Intra-family abuse should not be confused with “domestic violence”. There is only one kind of domestic violence in Ethiopia and that is committed by woyanne.
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January 19th, 2008 at 10:53 PM
bahru i like the way u approach this statement, can i guess what that “domestic violence” is in ethiopia right now??
WOYANE AND WOYANE ONLY!
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January 20th, 2008 at 1:20 AM
our injustice minister wants to get more financial support from an international communities for education to reduce domestic violence. very intersting. did shiber desalegn loss her lafe by domestic violence also too.. our injustice minister should support HR 2003 WHICH FORCES WEYANES TO RESPECT THEIR OWN CONSITUTION.
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January 20th, 2008 at 5:26 AM
Ethiopian women: women of beauty, grace, faith, and hard work
Traditionally, Ethiopian women are the most physically overworked, abused, neglected, disparaged, and scapegoated domestic creatures in the whole country if not in the whole world.
Overworked: A woman’s work in most regions in Ethiopia starts early in the morning, sometimes before or after the rooster crows, and at that early hour, she grinds the grain between two stones (wofitcho, mej). As she grinds the grain she sings in a subdued voice a nostalgic song about some of her departed relatives or close friends. When she is done with the mill, she carefully puts the flour into a big jar; then she sweeps the house with branches of wood tied together because it is hard to find a broom. After that she prepares breakfast for her husband and for her children; if she has a baby, she breastfeeds him; then she milks the caws if she has ones. After breakfast is over, the husband gone to the field and the children taken the animals to a grassy land, she is left with her little baby in the house alone. Even she is alone, she does not rest but goes to the river to fetch water. Carrying the water jar on her head and her little baby on her back, she comes home, tired and exhausted. After few minutes, she leaves her baby with her neighbors and goes out by herself to collect dead woods for cooking. When she comes back from the woods, she hears her baby screaming. The neighbors have done their best to soothe the baby, but the baby senses the soothing and the songs are not his mother’s, so leaving her dead woods at her front door, the mother rashes to her baby and calms him down, and the baby, assuring himself that the voice is his mother’s voice, and the feeling, the touching, and the smelling – all are his mother’s, he goes to sleep under his mother’s arms.
The woman puts the baby on the bed to finish his nap; in the mean time, she brings in her dead woods into the house and prepares dinner for her family. If she has a little time left, she spends it by weaving a basket (mudai, mesove) she has started but couldn’t finish it because she could not get enough time to finish it. Even if she has finished weaving the mudai or the mesove, she could start holding her distaff to spin some cotton she has prepared, using medamecha, into yarns (inzirt, fetil, mefitel) to make clothes for her entire family.
When the sun sets in, the children come home with their animals, and the husband sits in front of the hearth (midija); the woman brings worm water with a container and washes her husband’s feet. The husband eats his dinner, and later the children; the husband consumes a lot of food, but the woman eats like a bird – sometimes she hardly eats at all.
The husband, satisfied with the meal, never says thank you to the woman; he simply goes to bed to sleep. The children are now in bed; the woman still washes the dishes, mixes the flour with water to make buho and to ferment it to make bread (injera) for the next meal. While she is busy at work, the husband from his bed stares at the woman and murmurs why she is not coming to bed and make love with him. If she continues lingering from going to bed with him, the man comes down from his bed with a little clothe around his waist, slaps on her face, and take her by force to bed whether she is exhausted from hard work, or whether she is in her period, she has to go to bed and satisfy her husband’s sexual desire. After he is satisfied and starts to snore, she slips out of the bed without his knowledge and starts working as usual.
Abused: The husband always wants to see food on the table, if not, he curses the woman, beats her up. If she cries as he continues beating her up, the beating will be doubled, so most of the time she will be quiet, knowing the consequences of crying loud. The children of course will get terrified when they see their father beating their mother. Some of them, especially the little ones, start to cry, but their mother gets closer to them and comforts them, sobbing and wiping her tears with her hands.
Neglected: Some times, the husband may not come home on time, and the woman gets frustrated; she knows though why he is not coming home because he has an affair with another woman. Then, the wife asks herself: “Why does my husband go to another woman? I have never refused to go to bed with him most of the time.” She gets sad and neglected by her husband; if she says something about his absences, he will beat her up, so she would never mention his love affairs with another woman. If she wants to get a divorce, she cannot afford taking care of her children. The only chance she has is to go with her children and live with her parents, but her parents do not encourage her to leave her husband even though they know the situation between their daughter and their son-in-law.
Disparaged: By now her neighbors know that her husband is living with another woman; they have already started teasing and belittling her in front of her friends. She could not hide her disgrace because of her unfaithful husband, so she has now become a laughingstock among those who know her very well.
Scapegoated: The husband gets sick, and the physician tells him he has contracted syphilis, but the husband blames his wife and gets mad at her; however, the woman, for the sake of her children, stays with her husband until he dies because of his progressive disease. Then, the children become fatherless, and the woman remains a widow for the rest of her life.
The woman has been indeed a strong, a hard working, and a faithful person of which the scripture praises such a woman: “She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for the family….She sets about her work vigorously;…In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her finger” (Proverbs 31:15-20). Most Ethiopian women have been like this hard working woman throughout Ethiopian history, but what is the use of hard work unless they have good husbands and a good government that recognizes their hard efforts to improve themselves and their households?
The Woyanne government is more accountable to the domestic violence for not giving women enough protection against abusive husbands than the uneducated Ethiopian husbands. Ethiopia needs a good government that takes care of our Ethiopian women – a government that looks into all the cases – women cases and men cases – and solves their economic, social and ethnical problems quickly and fairly.
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January 20th, 2008 at 1:56 PM
wow Wyane being concerned bout Ethiopian women and children! Is it not Woyane that left many Ethiopian women with out a husband? Is it not the Woyane murderous regime that left many children fatherless? Don’t joke TPLF injustice minister: the main problem of ALL Ethiopians is your self centerd (Tigrayan centred) jingoisric policy that affects the entire community, including women, men and children! Your lip service and cosmetic treatment will get you anywhere. Once we remove Woyane, we will start to adress the real problem that affects our society!
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January 20th, 2008 at 2:24 PM
The Headline News Should State As:
“Half of Ethiopian women are victims of Woyane violence”
The violence being committed against children, women and men is widespread by Woyane thugs, adding that inocent citizens faced various forms of violence ranging from physical harm to death by TPLF mafia
Ayee Hagere Ethiopia Sentun Asayshin
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January 20th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
oh really, there is a surprise, only 50%! really?! the truth is way more than that, is it not? in fact, are there any woman in Ethiopian marriage that has not been abused physically. it is a way of life, call it culture or whatever. it is shameful for any ehiopian woman to call herself ethiopian when all this is happening.
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January 20th, 2008 at 8:32 PM
Sometimes we have to admit mistaks;it’s about our sisters and our mothers.
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January 20th, 2008 at 10:07 PM
But, the truth is, vertually all Ethiopians and many others are victims of his Gestapo brutuality & violence.
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January 21st, 2008 at 12:42 PM
እረ ተመስገን ነው ወያኔ ይህንንም ማመኑ::እነዚህም
ባንክ ሲዘርፉ አለመደብደባቸውን ማመኑ!!!!!!
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January 21st, 2008 at 2:10 PM
I’m an Ethiopian woman who have witnessed domestic violence in my home while growing up. I remember how terrified my sister and I used to be when my father slapped and hit my mother. I will never let a man lay a hand on me. I would rather tegetere mekret than being abused by a man. Dear Ethiopian men, please understand that REAL MEN DON’T HIT WOMEN. Enough is enough. Stop condoning violence.
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October 4th, 2010 at 11:53 PM
Violence by any name, ‘domestic’ or state is just that: violence. Women and their children are ferreted out of their rural homes for the samke of Indian, Arab, or whastever land grabber. Thus dispossesed and displaced by thier thousands, they are left in the streets, forced to be trafficked in search of income or to be beggars to swell the sizeable figure of ‘poor’ Ethiopians for whom NGOs and non-state actors will have to raise funds and enjoy fat salaries. I am inclined to think that men and women are better of fighting in their domestic sphere while holdijng on their independent resources such as their plots of land.
Regards, and with due respect to those who also advocate for the domestic rights of women.
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November 5th, 2011 at 9:09 AM