Africa

Abduction and Rape--Law Reform.  [Ethiopia] On 9 May 2005 the new Ethiopian Penal Code finally came into effect, which removed the marital exemption for abduction and rape.   Both abduction and rape are criminal offences under Ethiopian law, but Articles 558 and 599 of the 1957 Ethiopian Penal Code had provided that in the event of subsequent marriage to his victim, the perpetrator was exempt from criminal responsibility for these crimes.  Equality Now launched its campaign in March 2002, calling on the Ethiopian Government to comply with the sex equality provisions of its own Constitution and international law by abolishing this legal exemption.  According to traditional practice, a girl is typically abducted by a group of young men.  She is then raped by the man who wants to marry her, who may be someone she knows or a total stranger.  The elders from the man's village then apologize to the family of the girl and ask them to agree to the marriage.  The family often consents because a girl who has lost her virginity would be socially unacceptable for marriage to another man.  Sometimes the abductor keeps the girl in a hiding place and rapes her until she becomes pregnant, at which time her family feels it has no option but to agree to the marriage.
Fresh Violence, Rape Drives Thousands of Central Africans Across Border.  [Senegal/Chad] More than 2,000 Central Africans have fled over the border into Chad in the past two weeks to escape village raids and some have reported seeing young girls raped during the attacks, a UN official said on Tuesday.  George Menze, who works for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in the southern Chadian town of Gore, said refugees had told officials about men breaking into their homes, pillaging food, stealing livestock and raping girls.  "The numbers are growing," he told IRIN by telephone.  "In these conditions it is not likely people will be able to return anytime soon."
Where Abusing Women is Just 'A Normal Thing'.  [Nigeria/Zambia/South Africa/Zimbabwe] In December 2001, Rosalynn Isimeto-Osibuamhe and her husband, Emmanuel, had a typical husband-wife argument. Rosalynn wanted to visit her parents.  Emmanuel wanted her to stay home.  So they settled it in what some here say is an all-too-typical fashion: Emmanuel followed her out the door.  Then he beat her unconscious and left her lying in the street near their apartment.  Isimeto-Osibuamhe, then 31 and in the fifth year of her marriage, had broken an unwritten rule in this part of the world: She had defied her husband.  Surveys throughout sub-Saharan Africa show that many men, and women, too, consider such disobedience ample justification for a beating.  In few places on earth is violence against women more entrenched, and accepted, than in sub-Saharan Africa.  One in three Nigerian women reported having been physically abused by a male partner, according to the latest study, conducted in 1993.  In Zambia, nearly half of women surveyed said a male partner had beaten them, according to a 2004 study financed by the United States - the highest rate among nine developing nations surveyed on three continents.  In South Africa, researchers for the Medical Research Council estimated last year that a male partner kills a girlfriend or spouse every six hours, the highest mortality rate from domestic violence ever reported, they claim.  In Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, domestic violence accounts for more than 6 in 10 murder cases in court, a United Nations report concluded last year.
Groups of Women are Staving Off the Worst of the Food Crisis.  [Niger] Women's savings groups are shielding whole communities from the full onslaught of the food crisis in Niger, leading aid agency CARE International has found.  Set up by CARE International, the small savings and loans groups - effectively community banking systems - are acting as a buffer against hunger, because their members have been able to save money and grain together over the past few years.
Sitting in One Prison to Escape Another: Women Commit Adultery, Serve Time To Obtain Divorces.  [Sudan] Crouched in a dank prison ward, Ding Maker admits she broke the law by committing adultery.  But she didn't do it for love, she says.  Like many women in jail for infidelity in Sudan, she did it because she wanted a divorce.  For three months, she has been sitting in a cell with 12 other women, hoping to shame her husband into repaying her dowry and leaving her.  "He abused and beat me, never paying for my food or taking care of our sick children," Maker said, adjusting her shiny green shirt over her swelling belly.  She is pregnant from the affair, but not worried about it.

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