New Telegraph

We’re discriminated against, neglected, violated – Physically challenged women

“In my family, I have continued to suffer discrimination and marginalisation. If there is an issue and every member of our family is contributing to how to resolve it, they will not allow me to make my own contribution or suggestion because they feel that I have nothing to offer. They usually tell me to go and sit down. They will not allow me to finish what I have in mind to solve our issues. “But in the end, they will be regretting why they didn’t allow me to make my own contribution because my own contribution is usually good and very helpful. This type of discrimination is what is making physically challenged persons feel bad. In society, the physically challenged persons are not recognised; we are not recognised in anything in society. We are not treated like human beings and we are not happy about it. It is making us think that we are nothing.” These were the exact words of a physically challenged woman, Ojiugo Anyanwu who shared her bitter experiences with the New Telegraph.

Legal action threat

Her own experience seems to be better than Nelly Bisong, a Master’s Degree holder who had to threaten legal action or have her tuition fees refunded by her university before she could receive lectures comfortably. “When I was in school, going upstairs for my lectures was one of my challenges. Relating with friends was also a challenge for me it was not everybody accepted me. Disability has really affected me a lot. “It has not been easy for me; it wasn’t funny. When I started my MSc in Ebonyi State, it was very difficult for me to climb the stairs to access lecture rooms because lecturers refused to hold lectures separately for me due to my inability to easily climb the stairs and have my lectures. I had to complain to my Head of Department (HOD) and even threatened to take the school to court before they addressed the problem. I paid tuition fees and every other fee, there was no way I should be denied my lectures. So, the HOD was able to listen to my complaint and addressed it.

Difficulty

The above are the ugly experiences women with disabilities pass through. The physically challenged women also suffer other violence including rape. When some of them are raped, they are not even protected by their family members who they see as helpers only. They are discouraged from reporting the action against them by the suspects.

Sexual harassment

Onele Favour Ezinne, a virtually impaired lady, confirmed this to our correspondent. She said: “What causes sexual harassment of physically challenged women or girls is the attitude of the parent(s). If the girl reports such an act, the parent will tell her you are not even happy that a man approached her even with her disability and that there is no money to send her to school. Again, there is no regard for anyone that has one form of disability or the other. A family will be wealthy and will choose not to train a girl that has a disability.” She noted that men with disabilities don’t pass through what women with disabilities experience in society.

Men favoured

“Men with disabilities have a better chance of survival than women and the men are not all that discriminated against like the women. Society believes that a man that is virtually impaired can do something and get married to a sighted lady that will help him but how many men would like to marry a woman that is visually impaired? How many men will marry a woman that can’t work as a result of a disability?” Onele opined that there is high discrimination against virtually impaired persons. “When you go to a classroom and sit down with someone, immediately the person discovers that you are a virtually impaired person, the person will leave you immediately as if blindness is contagious, whereas it is not,” she said

Violence

Following the high rate of violence and discrimination against women with disabilities, a group, Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP) organised three-day training to equip and empower the women. The training was centred on ‘Access to Justice For Women and Girls Living with Disabilities in the state. Executive Director of WRAHP, Mrs. Rose Ironsi observed that due to widespread discrimination, extensive rights violation, neglect, and stigmatisation, women, and girls living with disabilities are at three times greater risk of suffering physical, sexual, and economic abuse compared to women and girls living without disabilities. She said the risk was further exacerbated by a lack of information and limited capacity of women living with disabilities to assert sexual and reproductive rights and report rights. Ironsi said: “There are several factors that informed this training. We know that there is a high prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and when you are talking about inclusion, it means you need to carry everybody along, information needs to get to men, women, everybody specifically those that are most vulnerable and if you see what has been happening here and from the voices that we have been hearing, women with disabilities are much more vulnerable when it comes to issues of SGBV.”

Economic dependency

She identified economic dependency, care dependency, and not being able to be equipped to be able to even help themselves and develop to their full potential as factors responsible for the high rate of violence against women with disabilities “From our statistics, there is a high rate of people living with disabilities in Ebonyi State. We want them to be advocates and that’s why we are training them to start talking to parents not to hide their children if they have disabilities because there is the opportunity for them to become great people in life. “And they are going to be forming a critical mass of people who are going to advocate getting justice. So, if one of them is abused, they are going to see themselves as all of them being abused,” she submitted.

Training
On her part Deputy Coordinator of the Gender-Based Violence Taskforce Team in the state, Rev. Flora Egwu explained that the training will enable disabled women to advocate for their rights whenever they are violated. “The rate of violence against women with disabilities is very high and because of their disabilities, they seem not to understand but the GBV taskforce is working hard, sensitising them. Society is another great challenge they have because society has a mindset about disabled persons and they don’t consider them to be part of society. “With this WRAHP advocacy training, it will no longer be business as usual. It will equip them to advocate for their rights whenever their rights are violated,” she said. With an estimated 25 million disabled persons in the country, about one in every eight Nigerians live with at least one form of disability. The most common of these disabilities are visual, hearing, physical, intellectual and communication impairments.

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