*By Tanyi-Mbianyor Samuel Tabi
Barrister Tanyi-Mbianyor Samuel Tabi |
After the most recent revision of
the law organizing elections in Cameroon, it is no more news that we have the
highest number of women represented in the different facets of government in
elective positions more than ever before. Thanks to the reforms. With this, one
would think that Cameroon is in for finally granting women the position they
deserve in our society. But elas! The
introduction of a dress code for all Cameroonian women is like to say the
government took a step ahead and then took nine steps behind.
Early last week, the government
of Cameroon through ten of its ministers, held a press conference in which they
introduced a dress code for all women in Cameroon. According to them, women
should not wear clothes that tend to show cleavage. The reason they proffered
was that dressing in “short skirts” for example could invite men to raping
women.
The message from this is
problematic as it fetishes women’s bodies. It reduces women to body parts,
-which become objects that need to be “covered”, for women to qualify as
well-brought up people of the society. It is my take that this reduction
dehumanizes women. They are no longer presented as humans, -full subjects with
intellect and will of their own. This type of metonymical representation of
women legitimizes patriarchy and makes sexist ideas appear natural and like
everyday normalcies.
Not long after the said press conference,
a young Cameroonian woman resident in the UK, Monica Nkele lambasted the
government on facebook. Within thirty minutes, her post had had hundreds of
hits condemning government for this action. Like Monica, we Cameroonian men
and women should be deeply saddened by the sexism and misogyny that women in
our country will be made to suffer as men would police them for owning their
bodies. The government’s so called campaign for indecent dressing amongst young
women in Cameroon is an indecent campaign which should not only be frowned at
but should be rejected out-rightly.
The question that worries most is
that even if our women and young girls are found naked, anywhere, should
anybody be raping them? I think the government should look at the root cause of
the problem, rather than looking for cosmetic ephemeral solutions where they
can never be found. On the contrary, this has the potential of creating more
problems for our society. It is not in dispute that rape is a very traumatic
experience for the victim. I remember as a young lawyer I once had a rape
survivor client who told me that because of that experience, she has never
slept with a man. Instead, she said, she tried a woman and has remained a
lesbian ever since. From that incident, my client said, she did not know if her
sexual preference was being a lesbian or not, but she was happy with what she
had (and still has) all the same.
I am not be this saying that rape
turns otherwise heterosexual women into being lesbians, but that it does not
only traumatize them but leaves them even more confused. Rape in our country,
like in some other African countries is fast becoming a scourge and
collectively, we must look for ways of dealing with it, head on. Someone must
stop the government of Cameroon from this blame-the-victim approach!
While commenting about the rape
culture in Nigeria recently, a Nigerian blogger and social critic wrote, “…rape
culprits are having a field day because the onus of proof lies only on the
victims. The victim is the one that must provide the bed sheet that was used to
rape her. She must provide her pant and not wash herself before going to the
police station and the hospital even when it is sure that there would be delays
in getting and presenting the report of medical tests because of the nature of
our health facilities. She must not urinate, drink liquids or take any other
bodily action as these could threaten her evidence”. The Cameroonian situation
is no different. This Nigerian blogger clearly captures the Cameroonian
situation as well.
In Cameroon, the CPDM government
seems determined to want to take women (and men) back to the dark ages where
native laws and customs made the males chiefs in every domain of life, while
their pale female counterparts remained with large disproportionate amounts of
power. They do it so well and women are even indoctrinated by male-dominated
sexist thinking that they do not only endorse, but they are in the fore fronts
to propagate the said ideas. Oh yes! Think of it, in practices like female
genital mutilation, which is still prevalent in Manyu Division (where I was
born), it is women who circumcise other women and not men circumcising women.
South African Philosopher and
writer, Bert Oliver opined that, “ the popularity of Fifty Shades of Gray
amongst women is quite understandable” because of this kind of macho-dominated
indoctrination of even well-placed women in society that they the women in turn
now endorse and impose the ideas (sadly) on themselves and their fellow women.
Oliver argues that, women are socialized into adopting patriarchal
subjectivities, despite their more holistic approach to things. Haven been
immersed in a patriarchal value system since childhood, Bert Oliver further
adumbrates that women have assimilated the patriarchal myth, that “women are
born by nature submissive,” and all it entails sexually. Does it therefor doubt
anyone that in a press conference organized by the Cameroon government to
launch the so called campaign against indecent dressing amongst Cameroonian
girls and young women, there were ten members of government present, but the
only two women, Minister for Women Affairs and Empowerment of the Family, Marie
Theres Abena Ondua and the Minister for Arts and Culture, Amma Tutu Muna, were
the main leaders? This is truly sad.
Even more sad is that we
Cameroonians being as docile as we are, we are wont to letting our government
get away with such arrant violations of (our) women’s rights. See the
uniqueness in Cameroonians now?
SlutWalk is a world-wide movement
that advocates for the rights of women. It started when at a Safety forum held
at the Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto on January 24th 2011, a
Police Constable, Michael Sanguinetti, said, “women should avoid dressing like
sluts in order not to be victimized”. That throwaway remark sparked the global
movement. As a result, a group of women led by a Guelph University student,
Heather Jarvis, decided to embrace the word “slut” and remind the world that
victims of gender-based violence are not to blame.
According to Jarvis, “the choice
to use the word SLUT in the name of the walk was twofold: firstly it comes from
the police officer’s comments and secondly, it’s time women reclaimed the word.
If slut is thrown around at so many people day in, day out … fine, we will take
it and take it to mean someone who is in control of their own sexuality”.
The word slut in the name of the
walk put many people off but Sarah Britten (a feminist I met in Johannesburg
early this year during SlutWalk South Africa) said she liked the way SlutWalk
has taken something intended to downgrade and marginalize women and turned it
into something empowering.
It is quite an intriguing venture
to be a male feminist but I think that we can change the sexism which is now
endemic in our culture if we get more men to internalize more enlightened
attitudes and pressure other men into adopting them too. If we want to make
real change in the ongoing problem of sexism and misogynist violence, the
government has to step up and address the real issues, instead of chasing the
shadow, while the real monster is left to knaw our mothers, grandmothers,
sisters, nieces, daughters, wives, friends and girlfriends. We have to address
even every day modes of speech that normalizes sexist ideas about women.
As a people and society, we need
to engage in serious debates about the ways in which even language operates
outside of ideologies and relations of power. Statements like, “behind every
successful man, there is a woman”, should be discouraged and deleted from our
everyday vocabulary. Truly the so called National Campaign Against Indecent
Dressing by Cameroonian Women is a big distraction from the real issues that
plague us, it is by no means an attraction.
In fact, it is my take that this is
a calculated move by the government to dissuade Cameroonians from the many
problems of a failed government that for thirty-one years, has left people only
impoverished to the point where our country has become one of twenty
millionaires and twenty million people. Pity. Or is it time for SlutWalk
Cameroon?
3 comments:
God bless you. You have said it all. My question still stands. What is the definition of indecent dressing? What criteria is been used to detect an indecent dressed individual? Are we saying only girls dress indecently?.
I took my time to go through your article and I think it has addressed all my worries too. Thank you for standing up for us, for our country Cameroon.
Great Article Tanyi. How great that I am just coming across your article today after months of intense research and online search for persons and entities working on or interested on the Cameroon dress code policing. Even before the socalled 'dress code ' policy, my organisation has started work on this issue...which you can follow on facebook under the harstag #endpolicestreetharassment #dresscode. Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-for-a-Change-Cameroon/156289507746061?fref=ts
Thanks for speaking out so loud against this issue.
In solidarity
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twitter: @ZoFem
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