A social researcher for the Malawi Council of Churches has said that the religious beliefs that wives should be submissive to their husbands is fuelling gender-based violence in the country.
Church council official Gerald Chigona cited recent cases in which a woman had her hands chopped off and another was killed for refusing to have sex with her HIV-infected husband.
"The focus seems to be on transforming girls into subservient and servant-like partners to a man," Chigona said while presenting a paper on religious tradition and gender-based violence in early 2006 in southern Malawi’s lake district of Mangochi.
The payment of a dowry, a bride price paid by the family of a husband, also contributes to the degradation of women
On occasions such as pre-wedding bridal parties, girls are advised against opposing traditions and practices that degrade them, he said.
The payment of a dowry, a bride price paid by the family of a husband, also contributes to the degradation of women and he said that this promotes genderbased violence.
"In patrilineal societies for example, a bride price translates into the loss of
not only security, but also personal history since a woman by tradition
ceases to belong to her biological family," said Chigona whose work on traditions and religions is known in and outside Malawi.
Ecumenical News international