THE Catholic Bishop of Yendi, Bishop Vincent Boi-Nai has entreated the government and civil society groups working on gender rights to initiate measures to address the abuse of the rights of women who are accused of witchcraft.
According to him, the women who were thrown out of their marital homes without any protection from the security or public agencies, were physically abused and suffered psychological assault.
He said these women were like all other citizens and therefore had the right to live normal lives and to prove their innocence when afforded the opportunity in a humane manner.
Bishop Boi-Nai made this plea at Sunson in the Yendi municipality when he addressed the closing ceremony of a five-day workshop aimed at building the capacity of women to contest the forthcoming Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembly elections.
A total of 52 women drawn for the Yendi Municipality and the Zabzugu/Tatale, Saboba, Nanumba North, Nanumba South, Karaga, Gusheigu and Chereponi districts took part in the workshop, which was organised by the Christian Mothers Association in collaboration with Dialogue and Advocacy for Good Governance (DAGG).
The bishop noted that issues of witchcraft, widowhood rites, female genital mutilation and trokosi still deprived women from enjoying their rights which are enshrined in the constitution.
He said article 26 (2) of the 1992 Constitution prohibits “all customary practices which dehumanise or are injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a person” and yet some of these practices still continue to occur.
Bishop Boi-Nai explained that the abuse of women had become common because the Ghanaian community had adapted to a patriarchal cultural system, which found meanings in traditional beliefs, norms, and values that degraded women.
He said women were considered to be biologically, intellectually and spiritually inferior to men contrary to what research studies indicate.
The bishop however commended the organisations that had laboured to improve women’s participation in governance, women’s access to micro-finance, grassroots mobilisation for joint activities to promote and women’s health.
He said these areas had contributed in some way to improve women’s lives, adding that what remained was to stop the violence against women.
The Executive Secretary of the Christian Mothers’ Association, Mrs Elizabeth Addai-Boateng noted that the number of women were more than men in Ghana and that it was therefore expected that more women than men would be seen participating in local governance.
She said it was therefore unfair for women to sit down and allow men to take decisions on their behalf, even though they (the women) were equally qualified to be decision makers.
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