“I endured in silence”: Deaf Women in Uganda And Their Struggle with Abusive Relationships

This week, we start in Uganda, where deaf women open up about their struggles in abusive relationships. Then, travel to Ethiopia, where there are reports of secret killings and rebel arrests. Finally, we stop in Nigeria to see a school giving displaced girls hope through education and skills training.

But first, in Mozambique, where pregnant or parenting adolescent girls and young women are unable to complete their education due to stigma, discrimination, and other societal barriers. 

Mozambique has the fifth highest rate of child marriage in the world, and its adolescent pregnancy rate is the highest in East and Southern Africa. A 2019 study also revealed that 70 percent of primary school dropouts in Mozambique were pregnant girls. 

In 2003, in a bid to promote girls’ education and equality in the country, the Mozambican government adopted an order that mandated school officials move pregnant girls and adolescent mothers from daytime to nighttime schools. But this only resulted in even more discrimination against them which led to many campaigns from civil rights groups. Eventually, the government revoked the order In December 2018 and instructed schools to allow pregnant and parenting girls to study with their peers during regular school hours.

But despite this, some school teachers and authorities automatically refer these young girls to night schools, enforcing the stigma and discrimination. In addition to this, many of these pregnant and parenting girls are often from low-income families, making it difficult for them to finance their education. All of this only contributes to their decision to eventually drop out. 

Although the Mozambican government has shown commitment to advancing girls’ education, there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s a pressing need for the government and other stakeholders to make system reforms and enforce policies that ensure proper sexual education for young girls and women. The establishment of a responsive reproductive healthcare and support service is also crucial.  

Prioritizing the reproductive education and rights of women would create a society where fewer girls drop out of school due to adolescent pregnancy. This would not only promote gender equality but also ensure that young women can pursue their education and contribute meaningfully to their communities and the nation as a whole.

 

Stories to Read

Reuters

In Ethiopia, a secret committee orders killings and arrests to crush rebels

The New York Times

Hydeia Broadbent, H.I.V. and AIDS Activist, Dies at 39

 

From our Site

“I endured in silence”: Deaf women in Uganda and their struggle with abusive relationships

When I was thirteen years old I lost my hearing due to a case of mumps. The complications and mishandled treatment, I lost my ability to hear.

After meeting and falling in love with Geoffrey*, a man who was also deaf, in 2019, we got married in a ceremony in Kampala filled with hope and anticipation for our future together.

After our wedding I wholeheartedly embraced change by moving to Western Uganda to support Geoffreys job. Although our initial months as newlyweds were joyful, we faced challenges relying solely on Geoffreys income. The pressure increased when we discovered that we were expecting a baby girl.

Gradually the man I loved transformed before my eyes. His actions became colored with disdain. He became violent with me. At night his touch felt more forceful than loving leaving me feeling more isolated than before. Our marriage was supposed to be a haven. Instead it became a battlefield where my cries for help went unheard.

Failure To Protect: Disabilities and Gender-Based Violence In Nigeria

When Bunmi, who was born with a visual impairment, announced to her relatives that a ‘brother’ in her church had shown a willingness to marry her, the news was received with enthusiasm. Many did not hesitate to tell her how lucky she was to have found such a “good man.”

Her marriage was barely six months old when she began to complain to close relatives that her husband and primary caregiver frequently beat her during disagreements and constantly called her an ingrate. He accused her of being ungrateful after he had taken pity on her by marrying her. Her relatives advised her to ‘work harder’ to please her husband and save her marriage. Things however took a turn for the worse when Bunmi suspected that her husband had diabolic intentions towards her. 

“He would sometimes rub strange objects on my head and down my body whenever he thought I was asleep, and I could hear him whispering strange things I didn’t understand,” she says. Not long after her husband’s strange behavior began, Bunmi confronted him about it. He did not receive this well and he attempted to strangle her to death. Though she was rescued by neighbors who believed that the couple was having a spat, many women and girls living with disabilities are not so fortunate.

 

Stories from Around the World

HumAngle

Diagnosis Of ADHD More Difficult To Obtain For These Women

As the first child in a family of six, Chidera Ochuagu was parentified from a very young age. This did nothing to protect her from Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), even now that she is 25.

A neurological development disorder, ADHD affects how people see and interact with the world, causing misalignments and problems in their personal and professional lives. 

One of the most prominent symptoms of ADHD in Chidera’s childhood was always being on the noisemaker list in school, and this action caused her to be constantly monitored and forced to behave a certain way due to the expectations placed on her both as a girl and as the eldest child in her family. 

Constantly feeling restless, excessively talking, obsessive use of social media, easily losing interest in things, and racing thoughts are common in people with ADHD. 

CNN

Opinion: A Sydney ‘copshop’ with a dark history. And the gay community reclaiming it

This week, the world’s biggest permanent LGBTQI+ museum will open in a venue that has, to say the least, raised eyebrows.

Qtopia, Sydney’s first center for LGBTQI+ history and culture, and Australia’s only queer museum, will be officially opened by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday at the former Darlinghurst Police Station.

Until now, a makeshift temporary museum was divided between several Sydney sites. But the move to a permanent home at the former police station has ruffled some feathers — especially amongst “‘78ers,” as they’re known.

These were the marchers in Sydney’s first ever Mardi Gras peaceful protest in 1978, which called for gay equality and a decriminalization of same-sex relations. Many marchers were brutally beaten by police. Fifty-three were arrested. Dozens were held in overcrowded cells at the Darlinghurst station.

The New Humanitarian

Sudan’s collapse is a test for the international community. We are failing it

A Sudanese woman who fled conflict in Darfur, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been carrying out mass atrocities, crossed to neighboring Chad on 2 August 2023.

In the deafening silence of global indifference, the war in Sudan recently entered its 10-month mark.

Since April 2023, close to 8 million people have fled their homes, of whom more than 1.6 million have sought refuge in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic – countries already grappling with immense difficulties.  Close to 25 million people need humanitarian assistance, including around 5 million people on the brink of famine and nearly 7 million children who are severely undernourished. Mass graves conceal evidence of widespread, systematic, and targeted mass atrocities that could be repeated at any moment as the conflict further expands.

Yet despite all of this, Sudan remains seemingly invisible to the global community.

 

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HumAngle

One School’s Attempt At Bringing Education Back To The Displaced 

One morning in January 2015, Hafsat Bukar woke up to a violent attack by Boko Haram insurgents in Baga, a town in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. When her family saw people running helter-skelter, they joined the crowd as the sounds of gunshots displaced dozens of villagers. 

Hafsat, who was only nine years old at the time, found herself separated from her mother, surviving in the bush with a stranger who fed her a small portion of stockfish while they desperately searched for her family. 

“I was with a stranger who helped me through for three days until we saw my mother in a town called Bundur in Monguno,” she said, each word from her laden with the weight of memories too heavy for a young girl. Just when her family thought they had lost her forever, they were reunited.