RURAL WOMEN WANT DIVORCE IN SWAZI MARRIAGE ALLOWED

MANZINI – After experiencing difficulties after the death of their spouses, rural women are lobbying for a law permitting the annulment of Swazi marriages.

This transpired during a meeting hosted by Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly on Thursday. The gathering was held at the Caritas in Manzini and its objective was to capacitate rural women from all over the country on their rights and further educate them on the importance of the enactment of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill, 2015. According to the organisation’s Secretary Cebile Dlamini, this was to consolidate women’s demands in a bid to hasten the passing of the Bill which has been dragging for years. The women later petitioned Senate on their demands on the same day. This demand was an addition to four others which are currently debated in senate. These include Clauses 4, 10, 42 and 47 of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill which were recently removed by a committee of Members of Parliament (MPs) after citing that some of them were against Swazi Culture. The clauses were unlawful stalking, flashing, abduction and incest.  However, the Deputy Prime Minster’s portfolio committee, chaired by Sandleni MP James Simelane, later reinstated these clauses.

Making their submissions, women from about 40 constituencies said cases of abuse would decrease if traditionally wedded women would be allowed to officially leave their marriages after their spouses have passed on or when they feel subjected to abuse during the course of their marriages. Sibongile Dlamini from Mbabane West constituency said her daughter refused to return to her matrimonial home in a process known as sitsinjana (mini-traditional wedding) after she was traditionally wed.  This is when a woman is returned by her family to her matrimonial home. The women mentioned that sitsinjana was unSwazi. Dlamini said the reason stated by her daughter was that she never agreed to the marriage but was only visiting her boyfriend when she was traditionally wed. For this, the woman was emphasising that traditionally wed women should be protected against such because staying with a person without their consent equates to abduction. This was echoed by Grace from the Shiselweni region, who said the evident incidents where women were emotionally, physically or financially abused by their husbands or in-laws begged for the drafting of laws that would also be in the women’s interest, just like in western marriages.  

In her response to the submissions, Human Rights Lawyer Mary Da Silva said to curb all these issues, the country should have written processes of the precise steps taken before a woman was married in accordance with Swazi law and Custom. Da Silva said all the nitty gritties should also be put in writing so as to prevent perpetrators of abuse from ill-treating women and violating their rights, all in the name of traditions. She also proposed that penalties for those who would not conform to the stated rules should be also stated in the law. According to Da Silva, nowadays, many cultures from other nations have been adopted by locals, which has resulted in identity confusion where people did what they thought was the right thing only to infringe on another party’s rights. For instance, the tradition of kuteka has been used by many as a justification for marrying women without their consent. This happens when men marry women on their first visit (kujuma) without proposing marriage and engaging both families.

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