"For centuries, women have been expected to endure bad marriages in many conservative pockets of West Africa. Divorce happened, but most often the husbands were the ones casting off their partners. Tradition has bound women so tightly that spouses are sometimes chosen for babies in the womb."
Joy and sadness rose up in me at the same time when I first read a headline about women seeking more divorces West Africa. But I was mostly happy.
I so wish I didn't understand that locations where there are no divorces are locations where women don't have any choices. And a location where a woman doesn't have any choices is a location where men can make zero effort to be a friend, confidant, and supporter.
Bottom Line: More often than not, a place where a woman has no choice is a place where the husbands are doing a poor job at being husbands.
"He didn’t hit her. He didn’t yell. He didn’t cheat, as far as she knows. It was just that, less than two years into their marriage, Zalika Amadou’s husband had changed. He’d become far too neglectful and indifferent for a young woman who expected, well, more.
Her mother, who had gotten married at 14 to a stranger twice her age, couldn’t understand the fuss. She’d stuck with her husband for five decades until he died, and was appalled that young women these days didn’t do the same.
But for Ms. Amadou, who married at 16, simply having a husband was not enough. She never wanted to depend on a man in the first place. So, on a busy morning in Maradi, Niger, she sat in front of a judge at a crowded Islamic court on the sidewalk and asked for what young women across the region are seeking like never before: a divorce."
Read More: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/world/africa/niger-divorce-women.html?
I was really happy to read, despite the conservatism of these Islamic West African Nations, that wife beating and murder were not at the root of divorces. By comparison, in India, the men appear to be having a hard time letting go of conservative, traditional roles where the men are supposed to be the only ones in charge in the household.
Years ago, I set a google search engine for wife beating and neglected to limit the search to the United States. I couldn't believe how many women were being murdered by husbands in India. I couldn't believe it.
Never forget that women's freedom is not only a quality of life issue, but a life and death issue. And one as is important as the other.
absolute power corrupts absolutely
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