Date: Thu Dec 11 18:19:03 2014
Kidnapped, raped and left for dead: who will protect Ethiopia's girls?
Gender-based violence is rampant, yet rather than equip NGOs to provide
support, the law has all but crippled women's rights organisations
Rediet Wegayehu
Thursday 11 December 2014 11.01 GMT
One day in early October, Hanna Lalango, 16, did not return from school to
her home in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, at the usual time. Her
father Lalongo Hayesso was
<http://www.diretube.com/zami-907/an-exclusive-interview-with-hanna-lalango-
father-must-listen-video_e7c0120c4.html> worried about his youngest
daughter.
"We waited for her at her usual time . but we had to wait for 11 days to
hear that she had been abandoned on the street. She was incapacitated and
couldn't even get up," said Hayesso. His daughter had been abducted,
gang-raped and left for dead. Hanna was not able to get to hospital until 12
days after her attack, where she was treated for traumatic gynaecological
fistula and other injuries. She died on 1 November.
Sexual violence against women in Ethiopia is relatively common.
<https://www.academia.edu/3522443/rethiinking_the_ethiopian_rape_law>
Research from 2012 found that "rape is undoubtedly one of the rampant crimes
in Ethiopia", and linked its prevalence to male chauvinist culture, legal
loopholes, the inefficiency of different agencies in the criminal justice
system, and "a deep-seated culture of silence". In October 2011, an
Ethiopian Airlines flight attendant named Aberash Hailay lost her eyesight
after her ex-husband, Fisseha,
<http://africanfeminism.com/2011/09/25/purple-white-ribbons-ahun-beayne-meta
-campaign-launch/> stabbed her in both eyes with a sharp knife. And there's
the story of Frehiwot Tadesse, a mother of two, who was shot
<http://www.peacewomen.org/news_article.php?id=5597&type=news> several times
by her ex-husband in a broad daylight in Addis. Since the first reported
case involving Kamilat Mehdi and her ex-boyfriend,
<http://kweschn.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/stalking-in-an-ethiopian-context/>
acid attacks against women have also shown a disturbing increase.
The prevalence of sexual abuse violence and the inadequacy of the response
to it are very much connected to gender inequality in Ethiopia. Of the 142
countries ranked in the
<http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/economies/#economy
=ETH> 2014 Gender Gap Index, Ethiopia ranks 127th, making almost no
noticeable progress in the past nine years. But the question being asked now
is whether sexual violence against women is actually rising, or whether we
are just being made more aware of it? And why is no one doing anything about
it?
The first question is difficult to answer as many women do not come forward
to report attacks. Only the most horrific cases, such as those mentioned
above, are reported in the media. Even then, interest among journalists is
low. Hanna's name was first mentioned in the
<http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/index.php/news/item/7949-> Ethiopian
Reporter (Amharic edition) 15 days after her death, replete with
inaccuracies such as an incorrect date of when she was attacked.
On the other hand, the response to such attacks on social media has been
overwhelming. Using Facebook and Twitter, Ethiopians have the freedom to
curate any information and share it with whomever they want, with the result
that stories such as Hanna's are getting told. The online campaign,
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/JusticeForHanna?src=hash> #JusticeForHanna, is
a good example of how Ethiopians are taking to the social networks to raise
awareness of failings in their society.
Despite the outcry on social media, the ministry of women, children and
youth affairs has remained almost completely silent. Minister Zenebu Tadesse
called Hanna's attack "
<http://www.fanabc.com/english/index.php/component/k2/item/1608?Itemid=674>
barbaric and heartbreaking" - and alluded to the endemic nature of violence
against Ethiopian women by saying "several other Hannas suffer from similar
violent sexual harassment" - but no action was taken.
With little support from the political or legal system, women who have been
victims of violence turn to NGOs. However the effectiveness of these
organisations is limited by the state. The 2009
<http://www.mfa.gov.et/docs/Charities%20and%20Socities%20Legislation.pdf>
Ethiopian Charities and Societies Proclamation (pdf) explicitly forbids
Ethiopian charities or societies from receiving more than 10% of their
funding from a foreign source.
This is significant because many of the organisations that advocate for
causes such as human rights and gender equality
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2407001> rely on
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2407001> international
funding to operate.
As a result, the move to deny them foreign funding has crippled many women's
rights organisations. The influential
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ethiopian-Women-Lawyers-Association/17322387
2751613> Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), for example, was forced
to cut its staff by 70% between 2010-2011. A
<http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR25/007/2012/en/485c38d2-4549-415
c-a3f2-5fd359a023f5/afr250072012en.html> study by Amnesty International
found that the EWLA has "effectively ceased to function, with the exception
of volunteers providing a small amount of free legal aid to women".
The recent social media furore about gender-based violence is welcome, but
briefly trending hashtags on Twitter will not address the underlying causes
and many more Hannas will suffer humiliation, violence and even death. To
prevent more of my sisters from falling victim to combat gender-based
violence, we need:
. the government and community leaders to make public spaces safe for women
and girls;
. the government to allocate funds and resources to strengthen civil
society;
. families and communities to stop defending perpetrators and silencing
victims' voices;
. schools to teach students about gender-based violence;
. international organisations to include men to bring collective solution to
gender inequality.
Although just a start, the #JusticeForHanna campaign shows that the will to
stop violence can be found within our own community. That is a ray of hope
that we can build a just and equal society.
Rediet Wegayehu is a senior fellow at <http://www.humanityinaction.org/>
Humanity in Action. Follow _at_reditweets <https://twitter.com/RediTweets> on
Twitter.
Justice for Hanna
A social media campaign was started in Ethiopia after 16-year-old Hanna
Lalango died after being sexually attacked on the streets. Photograph:
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)