AS we commemorate women’s day on March 8, 2014, let all those in the habit of marrying off young girls stop the rot.
What a shame that society is subjected to strange marriages of brother marrying sister.
There was a recent report of a brother-sister inlaw and yet again there are new revelations of similar marriage.
The truth could be that such people start flirting when they are young leading to such immoral unions, this is a form of child marriage.
Many victims of child marriages suffer silently and the effects of the traumatising acts haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Time has come now to break this scheme of silence being perpetrated by family and close friends because many of our children are victims of this conspiracy.
All of us must be ambassadors of child protection and in that way we must report any violation of children’s rights.
There has been an increase in the number of cases being reported involving child abuse and hopefully many people will continue to expose such cases including those of sexual abuse of both children and women.
It is unfortunate that there are still parents and guardians who are reluctant to expose child abuse cases of especially those involving sexual abuse of children for fear of tarnishing the image of the family.
Others, especially women, choose to conceal such criminal acts to protect their marriages and will in some cases even blame the victims for causing the abuse.
Unfortunately, most perpetrators of such atrocious crime are usually family members or close friends.
In some cases, even dependants such as teachers who are supposed to look after children abuse them and many parents are now in continuous worry over the safety of their children.
We cannot continue to turn a blind eye or pretend that all is well when many children are being hurt and yearning for help.
We must all reject and declare zero-tolerance on child abuse and violence against women.
There must be increased sensitisation campaigns to ensure that traditional customs and barriers that only help to perpetuate women and child abuse are discarded.
The laws dealing with women/child abuse must be revised. Apart from stiffening punishment, all those who are involved either directly or indirectly must be called to account for their demonic acts. This will help to break the silence. Happy women’s day to all women!
Gady Mwaba Museka
Kabwe.