Wife Battering : A gender base abuse.

Wife battering is a social phenomenon that has elicited the interest of civil right organization, in their quest to protect the right of women in the context of the seemingly inequality the society and its smallest unit, the family. Wife beating is a learned, conscious and deliberate behavior that is an offshoot of the culture-based inequality.  There is a widespread notion that violence against women is abnormal and yet, it exists in a large proportion globally. In many society, a male child is groomed consciously or unconsciously to feel he is superior to women. This is evident in a society deemed as patriarchal society.

Violence against women occurs in different dimensions, these are; Physical violence, psychological violence and prevalently, sexual violence. Rape is the most common of physical violence against women, this means forcing women to have sexual intercourse against their will. Violence against women can also be psychological, this involved threat to use force against women in the form if intimidation, use of uncivilized language, all these are geared toward making the women victim to act against her will. More often than not, this is denying the women victim of expression of themselves and also denying them freedom of association.

Wife battering is a major social problem plaguing the modern society. However, despite the adverse impact of this act, there has not been enough attention to the social ill.  Essentially, in African societies, Some African men abuse their spouses even at the slightest provocation. Abused women often face recriminations from their own parents and relations who have inculcated tin their female children the importance of matrimonial home, in spite of abuses coming from their spouses. Also, women are trained to see themselves depending on husband for the validation of self. Hence, the perception that men are superior to women.

In most of the advanced countries of the world, there has been several societal effort to curb the incident of wife battering. The act is tagged a gross violation of human right and it attract severe consequences, however, in a clime like Nigeria, the social menace require more attention. Several orientation is required, which should start from the family.  A girl child should not be trained to feel inferior to the boy and vices versa. The religious organization also has responsibility in emphasizing the doctrine of gender equality. It is until measures like this is emphasis, the perception of women and inferior gender will further justify their abuse by opposite sex.

“Gracia”