Patriarchy is the reason behind why women in Fiji suffer violence in their homes, says Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) coordinator Shamima Ali. She made the comments as the FWCC, Fiji Women’s Right Movement and femLINK pacific launched the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

Ms Ali said although the male child may be given the right type of education at home, the patriarchal thinking when the male student is in his peer groups either in traditional, school, or communal setting does teach him otherwise.

This she said was one of the reasons why gender-based violence even after three decades of campaigning remained high.

The three women’s groups highlighted how the 16 days of activism started in 1991 when women representatives from each of the regions came together.

In a joint statement, the three bodies said 64 per cent of women in Fiji experience violence in their lifetime.

FWCC said they received 5610 domestic violence cases the past 10 months, 122 child abuse cases, nine attempted rape cases, 40 rape cases, and 54 child rape cases.

It also recorded 70 cases of child, physical, verbal, and emotional abuse cases while 59 were sexual harassment cases.

FWRM research stated that it took 868 days for a woman to report her issues of violence to Police. Executive director Nalini Singh further claimed that sexual harassment at workplaces was rife and sexual harassment policies were put in place just to ensure companies complied with the law without much enforcement.

The 16 days of activism starts today and ends December 10.

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