Why Men Rape–Gender Activist

A gender activist, Miss Evelyn Onah, has claimed that lack of proper moral training of male children to appreciate females as partners by their parents is a major reason why some boys commit rape.

Miss Onah, who is the centre manager, Tamar Sexual Assault Referral Centre (TARMASAC), Enugu, stated this on Thursday at a programme to mark this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Onah condemned the increasing cases of rape against girl-child, and called on women to speak up in order to eliminate the scourge.

In her words, “Male children should be trained very well to reduce the incidents of female abuses. The girl-child is always the victims because parents start early to prepare them for marriage, forgetting to train the male-child to be good.

“When males grow up, they see the girl-child as the prey. To make the matter worse, female parents do not speak up for fear of stigmatisation. This is even when they notice their husbands abusing their female children.”

She also regretted that females play a huge role in female genital mutilation, adding that, ‘until they say ‘no’ to the practice, it would persist’.

Quoting her, “Female genital mutilation is carried out by females. Forcing widows to drink bath water of the corpses of their husbands is also implemented by females. Unless we rise against this, we remain the enforcers and the culprits.”

She called on various governments to domesticate the Child Rights Acts to protect children from abuses.

The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘End Violence against Women’. It runs from Nov 25th to Dec 10th.

TARMASAC is an NGO protecting women and girl-child against abuses.