By Poloko Mokhele
Engaging men and boys as partners should be an integral strategy in fighting gender based violence and other harmful cultural practices that marginalize women and girls in Lesotho.
In an attempt to end gender based violence and advance gender equality in Lesotho, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) works with men and boys by engaging them, through male engagements forums and husband schools discussing issues of sexual reproductive health and rights, on women’s rights and the need to end all forms of abuse and violence against women and girls.
According to UNFPA, the husband schools were piloted in 2019 and have enrolled a total of eighty men in four groups, which have been conducted in both Mokhotlong and Quthing districts.
The programmes are designed to encourage men and boys to abandon harmful stereotypes, embrace respectful, healthy relationships and support the human rights of all people, everywhere.
In the husband schools, male gender champions are recruited as effective communicators of behavioural change for other men.
“The aim of the husband schools is to the different forms of vulnerabilities that women suffer due to male stereotypes and attitudes, although they are not formal institutions but we gather men to discuss a series of sessions spaced in six months, issues that affect the lives of women and girls and those that prevent them from attaining their full potential,” said UNFPA communication assistant, Violet Maraisane.
In an interview with this publication, social worker and gender activist, Seabata Makoae said when fighting gender based violence it is important for men to admit that they are often the perpetrators of gender based violence while women are victims and therefore men need to admit and see themselves as change makers. “We need to admit that we have many privileges compared to women, because as a man I can still walk around the streets at night freely without fearing anything but a woman cannot walk freely. Therefore after having this understanding, we need all men to hold others accountable whenever they see them committing gender based violence, because in the end all men will be generalised as perpetrators if we all keep quiet,” he said.
Makoae further indicated that men tend to listen and feel comfortable to speak freely when they are together and share their insecurities or the reasons that may have led them to commit harmful acts against women and girls, unlike when they are in the presence of women. Hence it is important “for those that understand the importance of stopping gender based violence against women and girls to engage with those that are still left behind.”
Gender-based violence prevalence rate in Lesotho is 86 percent of women have experienced it in their lifetime, according to a 2015 study by Gender Links, with 40 percent of men admitting to perpetrating violence against women at least once in their lifetime.
