By Bernice Bessey
The Savannah Women Empowerment Group Ghana (SWEGG) is calling on Parliament of Ghana to enact laws that would clearly spell out gender equity and protect the development of women against negative cultural practices.
According to SWEGG, said though the 1992 Constitution prohibits all customary practices that affect a person’s dignity, practices such as Female Gentle Mutilation (FGM), widowhood rites, forced marriage, high bridal price, domestic violence and witchcraft accusations continue to persist against women, especially, in the three northern regions.
The group, which is also seeking the strong backing of the National House of Chiefs, felt women in the northern parts of Ghana’s rights are been denied and trampled upon, and therefore need laws that would protect their pride as women.
The SWEGG Convener, Amina Montia, noted in her speech at a press conference in Accra that the majority of young women in the northern regions are forced to marry men they don’t love or know.
She added that forced marriage is gradually becoming a custom, since many families are using the system to generate income.
She noted that the devilish side of the issue was that women, after suffering abusive marriage for years, culture demands they pay back the dowry before they walk out of the home they never belonged to.
According to Ms. Montia, these outmoded practices are affecting many women, saying; “This, we think, is unacceptable in a modern society which professes to be democratic.”
“The earlier we enact laws against this outrageous dowry system and other dehumanising cultural practices, the better for us all,” she pleaded,
Dehumanize Widowhood rites
The rights of women are abused in nightmarish rites such as bathing outside the compound, cooking on rubbish dumps, eating from a calabash and using it as pillow, walking naked to the riverside to have a bath, walking with leaves covering only the private parts, and being forced to constantly stay in the same room with the deceased husband before burial.
Widows are also forced to marry close relatives of their late husbands or else forfeit any property they own with their late husbands, banned from staying in their matrimonial homes or visiting their children.
“This can be best described as making a mockery of Article 16(1) of 1992 Constitution, which states that “no person shall be held in slavery or servitude,” she said.
Ms. Strongly believed that the country can attain its developmental goals if the 51% of its population that are women are allowed to contribute their quota, and not denied or pressurised by negative cultural practices from carrying them out.