VAGW

VAGW is a rampant phenomenon in Nigeria, and it cuts across every class, ethnic, religion, language and community. It has subjected millions of Nigerian women to a life of oppression, exploitation and abuse – reducing them to second-class citizens in many respects. A lot of them merely live from day to day, and neither have control over their destiny, nor are able to explore and develop their personal and social potentials. VAGW is Gender-based violence (GBV) against women inflicted on women because of inequalities between the male and female genders. It has been acknowledged worldwide as a violation of basic human rights and it includes acts that inflict physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and other deprivations of liberty. An increasing amount of research highlights the health burdens, intergenerational effects, and demographic consequences of VAGW. Such violence includes female genital mutilation, domestic violence verbal and psychological abuse of women or girls; violence against non-combatant women, and women in conflict situation, rape and sexual abuse, and social and legal discrimination against women and girls. Matters have not been helped by a regime of laws, and socio-cultural practices that discriminate against women and the girl child and deny them equal access to education, credit, property and wealth. GPI… Hundreds of thousands of women are brutalised in their homes and on the streets each year. A similar number of girl children forcefully undergo female genital mutilation. A countless lot of women and girl children suffer verbal and psychological abuse and it has been observed that in the past few years, women had been victims of violence in communal and ethno-religious conflicts such as those in Warri, in Delta State, Kaduna, Plateau, Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States.