By Añuli Aniebo
Frames of Violence
Many scholarly definitions of femicide speak to the killing of women and girls just because of their gender – being a girl or woman. Many other framings exist – Uxoricide (killing of a wife by her husband), Intimate Partner Violence (murder committed by a spouse or partner), Gendercide (deliberate killing of individuals), Honour Killing (a woman killed by members of her family). The Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) space, utilise this framing of femicide and limit the conceptualisation of “killing a woman’ to be a sudden or physical death often times influenced by intimate partners or family members. These definitions, in my opinion, limit the interrogation and intervention of femicide to when actual death has occurred.
The process of a girl or woman losing agency over her own life, wellbeing be it socio- economic or otherwise, should also be framed under femicide.
Localising the Issues.
Nigeria has had varying occurrences of women and girls dying from many violence related incidents. Some of the crimes against women and girls are violently perpetuated from the onset of how social norms and cultural expectations are instituted to the level at which the reinforcement of such behaviours are policed. Women and girls grow up in a system that ensures agency is very controlled under watchful lenses.
When a woman loses her life, even in death, she is still questioned by society. Women and girls are still vilified and shamed for losing their lives in the hands of violence. Violence apologists will still find reasons to shame and blame the woman for the inability to remain alive. Women are killed across religion, socio-economic status, educational achievements, and suffer discrimination across political, legal, cultural and economic intersections and my opinion stands strong to posit that femicide is not just the act of an eventual death. Femicide is the way women and girls are still violently controlled by institutions and systems of power that are structurally created to enable violence.
Who is Guilty?
I ask, what exactly is the justification for killing a woman in our society? Is it because she is a woman? Or is there more than meets the eye?. NONE is the answer yet in analysing the most recent killing of a young woman in the hands of her intimate partner, investigations allude to the fact that the man killed the woman due to economic reasons. In a society where the obedience to social norms is highly expected- women to marry men, and men to provide financially and protect the home- the binary outcomes experienced in the society is that men always seeking to provide and using any means necessary to be financially able for example through fraud or “yahoo yahoo” (diabolical means of get rich quick schemes).
Women are pressured to marry and “settle” down to meet acceptability standards and in the process, get entangled with some unforeseen and manipulative connections. In this case, the man used his power and influence over a vulnerable woman with the intent to be financially successful. He killed because of his greed and manipulative intentions. The deceased and the perpetrator are entangled in a web of achieving societal expectations however, the victim did not deserve this sudden loss of life.
Women and girls always live in constant fear – protect themselves, remain vigilant, dress careful, controlled, and yet still face vilification, shaming, commodification, oppression, and blamed if or when an act of violence is perpetuated again her. The most recent evidence of an 18-year-old young woman brutally beaten and constantly violated by her partner, confirms the very present and looming danger of femicide despite the interventions of rescue. Culture still has a huge influence on how many violent incidences is normalised, prevented or resolved. The perpetrator should have been arrested as the evidence was glaringly obvious, rather, he was let to be in a space with the 18-year-old, a situation that still permeates violence in my opinion.
This situation has been structurally re-defined across some international spaces and in other countries that are deliberate in protecting the lives of vulnerable members. When anyone notices an act of violence on another, the permission of the victim is not sought for protection, the law and systems authorise that a “bystander” intervention takes precedence and activates a system of protection. The State takes over swiftly. Many women continue to be apologists to what other women experience either through learned helplessness, living in denial, ‘minding my business’ ideology or false support usually created and normalised by some mindsets that encourage and normalise their own oppressive ideologies.
Re-thinking Safety
Can society call out the root causes of injustices that women and girls face from the system that is strongly patriarchal, hegemonic and structurally violent? I interrogate this and see femicide as the dying of a woman’s body, soul, spirit and purpose on a daily when violence is instituted and reinforced as a norm in our society. Femicide is the silencing of voices of victims by systems of power that should protect and prevent. Femicide occurs daily in our society and requires a re-imagining and re-addressing of our understanding to enable a more sustainable curb on this crime.
I lean into the article by Nadera Shalhoub – Kevorkian to reconstruct the conceptualisation of this definition of femicide. I advocate that femicide should be described as death even while still breathing. The scope should be expanded and the interventions that should prevent and protect, be refined to keep our girls and women safe from all forms of violence.
Añuli Aniebo. Gender and Inclusion in Practice | ED, HEIR Women Hub
