Yaounde, Cameroon — Activists in Chad have launched a campaign to educate clerics and traditional rulers against early marriages, female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices on women. The campaign is part of the United Nations "16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence."
Government officials in Chad say about 70% of girls under 16 are forced into marriage to men who are at times older than their parents. More than 25% of women in the conflict-ridden country say they have been sexually abused.
That's why 27-year-old Voyang Claudine told a crowd at the N'djamena Central Market to fearlessly denounce all forms of abuses on women and girls.
She said women activists in Chad strongly condemn early marriages and what she calls a culture of gang rape spreading through conflict-ridden towns and villages in Chad.
Claudine is a victim of sexual violence and spokesperson for the Association of Chad's Indigenous Women. She said more than half of the women who asked the association for help were either sexually assaulted or raped, while about 80 were forced into early marriages by their parents.
She said all the women and girls who resisted abuses on their rights were physically assaulted.
Activists in the central African nation say they are using the ongoing 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence to educate civilians, especially traditional rulers and religious leaders, against traditional practices they say are harmful to women.
Epiphanie Dionrang is president of the Chadian Women's Rights League, a non-governmental organization that fights to empower women with rights, freedoms and opportunities. She said this year's theme for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence in Chad is "Fight Back and Rebuild after Violence." It is a clarion call, Dionrang said, to all civilians to amplify voices of survivors, give moral, psychological and financial support to women and girls and strengthen feminist movements to reduce and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls, and protect women's rights.
Speaking on state TV, Dionrang said her organization is part of several dozen humanitarian and rights groups that are visiting towns and villages in Chad to raise awareness, educate civilians and make sure women are protected.
She said their aim is to encourage communities to give equal access to education for boys and girls and stop female genital mutilation, which some men erroneously think makes women remain faithful in marriage.
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Amina Priscille Longoh, Chad's Women's and National Solidarity minister, spoke on Chad state TV Tuesday.
She said Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby, who has a strong political will to end all forms of violence, has ordered his government to make sure women who are abused or whose rights are violated have free access to justice and medical and psychological care. She said Deby has ordered his government to prosecute troops and rebels who sexually abuse women.
The government of Chad said it will also persecute traditional and religious leaders who promote the use of outdated and harmful cultural practices on women.
