Some men believe they have right to beat women — UNDP official
From left, UNDP assistant resident representative Sharifa Ali-Abdullah, Madinah House patron Zalayhar Hassanali, Madinah House president Lydia Choate and Sabeerah Khan display the new magazine at yesterday’s launch.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assistant resident representative Sharifa Ali-Abdullah says cultural beliefs contribute to the sexual abuse and battering of women and children in T&T.
Speaking yesterday at the launch of a magazine promoting the Madinah House, a safe house for battered women and children, Ali-Abdullah said confusion over religious beliefs has triggered violence in homes, with some men believing they have a moral right to beat their spouses.
“While the United Nations has declared violence against women a pandemic in 1993, today, more than 26 years later, one in three women still experience physical and sexual violence,” Ali-Abdullah said.
She noted that a 2017 T&T Women’s Health survey revealed one in every three women has suffered from violence at the hands of a partner.
“This means that of our 1.4 million men women and children, approximately 130,000 women in T&T have experienced some form of violence,” she added.
Ali-Abdullah said Muslim women are not spared from the abuse.
“Our cultural beliefs fuel this violent attitude towards women and children. Our notions about manhood and womanhood, love and family are shaped and reinforced by messages from religion and the media and have had a significant influence on what people believe about the interaction between men and women,” she said.
She added, “It is clear that Allah ordained that men and women are equal, that they complement each other, but equality does not mean sameness. The Muslim woman can choose to participate and respond appropriately to the needs of her family, community and country.”
Saying there was a war against family and marriage, Ali-Abdullah said the media also contributes towards violence as some genres of music denigrate and disrespect women and promote the culture of violence.
“I want to state my total disgust for the manner in which some people use social media to attack marriage and family and promote disrespect for these institutions, which nibbles away and eventually leads to the weakening of these fundamental structures for a peaceful existence,” she said.
This caption is misleading on so many levels. Men of every persuasion be it Trinidadian, Jamaican. American have misogynistic tendencies. While this is presented to educate we need to not be so quick to label the proponents of the behavior but rather the symptoms without assigning ethnic labels.
Yow between dem and di vincy dem and I am not talking all … mek mi feel se a man carry dem inna this world dem do Oman some sitten …..
YES DEM BEAT OOMAN WORSE THAN YARD MON.