Struggles of Women in Zambia

Charisma Kyles

Adriane Brown

Blog #1

17 October 2013

Women in Zambia

Women all around the world are still struggling today in the 21^st Century. But the women in Zambia, Africa has seem too been through it all. Many of the Zambian women are not really treated with respect like they should be, I mean without the help of them reproducing, there wouldn’t be no Zambian culture in the world today. The women are facing difficult times with domestic violence and health issues; these two problems are huge in the Zambian culture today because they both are what women have not type of guidance in to help them. Domestic violence is a huge topic discussed in Zambia because women are silent about what actually goes on in their homes due to fear, shame, or just the fact of not knowing where to go for help. Their health issues are actually quite similar, they don’t know who to go to or if anything is ever wrong with them because they don’t have the access to clinics or hospitals. The poverty in Zambia affects everyone, but it affects the women in the country more than anyone.

Millions of women suffer in silence as victims of domestic violence. Voicing out their opinion and speaking on the situation could cost them their lives, but they feel as if they don’t, it’s costing them their dignity.

In Zambia, 1 out of 3 women have been abused by their husbands; the man who’s supposed to love them not hurt them. But in Zambia, if their husband beats them, it’s looked at as him loving you and the women reporting their husband will make them look bad to their society showing them they don’t love them back. Most Zambian women think it is okay for their husband to beat on them if they do something like, talk back, cook dinner wrong, or not obey them. Zambian women also depend on their husband for economic dependence, they aren’t allowed to handle/own money on their own which is why they become married because if not, they wouldn’t be able to survive on their own. Most of the abuse is done in the rural areas, due the lack of law enforcement availability and poverty. Violence usually is done towards women who lack education; they’re less likely to speak their mind and depend on their spouse for stability, women have no other support system. Men look at abusing their wives as masculinity, it shows that they are in control and it makes them feel good about themselves; the men know it’s not acceptable and it’s now illegal to abuse women in Zambia some just think it’s the way to control and make sure your wife/girlfriend is doing the “right” thing and not going against the men.

Domestic violence is usually done around the children, about 275 million children witness domestic abuse as said in the film Hidden Truth. The father’s think it’s a way to show the children who runs the relationship and what happens if their mother does wrong; it’s looked at as the father is the “good guy” and the mother is the “bad guy”. The violence is also not only done by the husband’s, but their families may even contribute to the abuse also at times. Aiming not only towards the mother, but the female children. The father may abuse the girls of the family to “prepare” them for their husband one day, to show them what and what not to do.

The women are alone, law enforcement officials don’t even bother to help them due the their belief in killing women known as “honor killing” when they do not obey the husband or bring some king of shame to their family by either rape or being suspected of having sexual relationships outside of their marriage. Police are also bribed to keep the male relatives safe from punishment, some even let them escape. Women all around Africa barely have to ability to defend themselves in the court of law due to this; law enforcement officials fail to punish the men who commit these types of crimes because it happens so much, at this point they think it’s pointless to even try. Women are also facing even more troublesome issues within themselves, it’s another thing that is hard to change.

Health, a huge controversial topic being discussed everywhere today, right now as we speak. There’s talks about it needing to be more available and affordable for everyone. Small steps are being taken, just slowly but surely.

In Zambia, diseases are transferred in many other ways than most are familiar with. The country has to deal with diseases being transmitted through insects, food, water, environment, and of course the human species. There has been some improvement in the health care systems, organizations try to help out and build clinics for the citizens to go to, but many women are still dying. Complications in rural areas are higher because not much is offered or easy to access. One of the biggest obstacles Zambia has had to face would have to be finding ways to actually overcome the access to healthcare to women in rural, urban, and higher areas. But Zambia has made some type of progress in this movement.

Pregnant women are actually attending to receive medical attention more, they at least try to have one visit with the physician or midwives. The more the mother receives medical attention, the more likely they are to notice something not only wrong with the mother but the baby also. The medical visits has helped the amount of still births decrease by 6,649 to 591 because of being able to spot out any problems during the pregnancy. The UNFPA has given the analysis that Zambia has been working on making maternal health much more available based off of antenatal care and demand for contraceptives.

One thing Zambian culture is known for is dealing with HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS has always been a huge health issue in Africa, due to the lack of contraceptives and clinics and also the violence of rape against women. Some groups are more affected by it than others. Young women between the ages 15-24 are more open to this disease more. Plenty of Zambian women have died because the virus, but also their children. Women don’t usually get taught to insist in using a condom or even refuse sex; only 15 percent has actually reported to be forced into sex. Women are typically sexually active earlier than men and with partners who are older than them who has already had plenty of other sex partners. A law called, Anti-Gender Based Violence Act, was a law enacted with the Zambian Government to help prevent violence gender-based. They hope that this will help decrease the risk of HIV/AIDS infection women face. But the Zambian women are also widely known for being the second largest group in Africa diagnosed with cervical cancer. Normally, there is about 1,600 women in Zambia that are diagnosed with cervical cancer yearly and about 1,300 actually die from the disease. They have early detection and treatment centers, but most women cannot get access to the centers. But the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia has now opened 15 centers around Zambia to make it more accessible for women to get tested. They have tested on 23,000 women in the last 3 years. The reason there are so many women with cervical cancer is because women with HIV/AIDS are more likely to develop cervical lesions that end of becoming cancerous due to not being checked regularly. Now, CIDRZ has been making a change in how many women are actually dying and surviving thanks to their centers built all around Zambia. Saving plenty of lives, saving women.

Women all around the world are still struggling today in the 21^st Century. The women in Zambia, Africa has seem too been through it all. Domestic violence is hard enough to deal with, but having to deal death facing diseases at the same time is even worse. Zambian women wake up daily trying to make the present day better than yesterday. I think the violence women face is terrible and shocking but yet they are strong and hopeful for change. They don’t dwell and just sit there hoping for things to change, they go out there and try to make that change happen. HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer are the two top health issues women face in Zambia, they are unknown of these diseases due to lack of knowledge and no access to clinics; but they seem to be working it. The lack of concentration on bettering women’s health and protecting them has gotten better over the years but it’s still not good enough to stop the Zambian women from dying, more than should be. The Government should play more of a role in the women’s rights, they should not look at the women as objects, but as humans. Equal them out the men around them and give them the type of care and attention they need. They need to stop hurting and taking advantage of the women who gave birth to us, without them they wouldn’t be here today.

Works Cited

White, Heather L., et al. "‘Worse than HIV’ Or ‘not as Serious as Other Diseases’?

Conceptualization of Cervical Cancer among Newly Screened Women in Zambia." Social science & medicine 74.10 (2012): 1486-93. Web.

Rude, Darlene. "Reasonable Men and Provocative Women: An Analysis of Gendered Domestic  

Homicide in Zambia." Journal of Southern African Studies 25.1 (1999): 7-27. Web.

Hidden Truth. Dir. Penelope Machipi. Perf. Zambian Women. The Samfya Women Filmmakers,

2010. Film.     

Seager, Joni. The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.

"Young Zambian Women and Their Fight Against HIV/AIDS | Impatient Optimists."Impatient Optimists. N.p., 16 July 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. <http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/07/Why-Young-Zambian-Women>.