Sexual Abuse in Swaziland

SWAZILAND: Every third woman sexually abused as a child, says report

Photo: IRIN

An alarming number of girls in Swaziland have been abused

MBABANE,
9 April 2008 (IRIN) – One in three Swazi women has suffered some form
of sexual abuse as a child; one in four experienced physical violence,
a new United Nations survey revealed this week.

The study by
the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is the first of its kind conducted in a
country where anecdotal evidence suggests an alarming number of female
children are victims of abuse. More disconcertingly still, the
mushrooming population of orphans and vulnerable children in Swaziland
provide yet more opportunities for sexual exploitation to occur.

In
two years, 200,000 Swazi children will have been orphaned by AIDS –
more than one-fifth of the current population, according to UNICEF.
With HIV prevalence at 33.4 percent among people aged between 15 and
49, the country has the world’s highest infection rate. As a result,
life expectancy has halved from nearly 60 years in the 1990s to just
over 30 years today.

“Disabled children, children out of
school and orphans are some of the most vulnerable groups,” said Jama
Gulaid, UNICEF representative in Swaziland. “Poverty and the high
prevalence of HIV create high numbers of marginalised children.”

The
survey, the National Study on Violence Against Children and Young
Women, based its findings on interviews among rural and urban
communities. Disturbingly, it concluded that violence and sexual
assault against girls primarily took place at home.

“We found that 75 percent of the perpetrators of sexual violence were known to the victim,” Gulaid said.

“It
is not surprising that sexual abuse of girls is a household problem,
because Swazis reside in multi-generational homes, usually isolated
farms,” said a researcher with the non-governmental organisation, Women
in Law in Southern Africa’s Swaziland chapter. “Relatively few girls
are raped by strangers in towns because less of the population resides
in towns, and there is a heightened awareness of security there”.

Rapists don’t use condoms

Often
the abusers are the girls’ own fathers and boyfriends. Only 43.5
percent of girls said their first sexual experiences were freely willed
and devoid of coercion: a little less than five percent said they had
been introduced to sex as rape victims.

We found that 75 percent of the perpetrators of sexual violence were known to the victim

Underscoring the urgency of addressing violence against girls was the AIDS crisis.

“Rapists
don’t use condoms, and if a father or uncle are so inclined to rape a
daughter or niece, or a boyfriend forces himself on his girlfriend, the
danger of HIV transmission is rife,” said Victor Ndlovu, a voluntary
testing and counseling officer in the central commercial town of
Manzini. “Add to that the reluctance of girls to report abuse or in
many instances to rightly understand they have been violated, we are
faced with a serious public health challenge, aside from the individual
suffering incurred by the girls.”

A third of Swazi females
interviewed for the study reported they had experienced emotional
abuse. Often, the perpetrators had been abused themselves as children.

“The
established ‘hand me down’ passing on of abuse is evident from what we
were told,” said Pamela Dlamini, a sociology student at the University
of Swaziland, who was one of the survey interviewers. “Emotional abuse
of girls is mostly carried out by the girls’ female relatives, who were
abused themselves. Sometimes there is jealousy. Instead of reporting an
abusive husband or unable to police [the girl], the girl’s mother or
aunt will treat the girl as a rival. This comes from a culture where
any post-pubescent girl is considered eligible for marriage in a
polygamous household, even if she is 13, although Swazi culture does
not allow for the incest we find rampant in households where abuse
occurs.”

Although officially a middle-income country, the UN
Development Programme estimates more than two-thirds of Swazis live in
chronic poverty, about the same number – over 600,000 – currently
depend on food assistance from the World Food Programme and other donor
groups.

The report noted that “Violence can damage the
emotional, cognitive and physical development of children and thereby
impact economic development of Swaziland by degrading the contribution
of affected children”.

The way forward

Less
than half of sexual assaults and other abusive crimes are reported to
the authorities. Swazi children were found to have sought help from the
police or social welfare counselors in only one out of five cases that
resulted in injury serious enough to consult a doctor.

The way
forward appears to be through education, instructing girls about what
constitutes abuse. “I spoke with many girls who said they did not
understand that they had been abused. They felt abused, physically and
psychologically, but no one told them this was not normal,” said
Dlamini.

The report backed Dlamini’s observation, noting, “The
numbers suggest a lack of understanding of what sexual violence is and
how and where to report such incidents”.

Educational
programmes in schools would assist in a country where primary school
attendance is relatively widespread, and instruct girls on the type of
behaviour acceptable when they return home.

“The large numbers
of sexual violence incidents happening in the home underscores the
hidden nature of sexual violence and presents one of the largest
challenges in preventing sexual violence in Swaziland,” the report
said.

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