Garowe: Women in Media Initiative WIMI in coordination with ADRA Somalia has organized and held in Garowe on the 16th of May 2019 an interactive debate on the “Causes of Increase in rape cases” and violence against women.
The event was attended by university students, youth organizations, women organizations leaders, intellectuals, community activists, and members of the diaspora. The debate was divided into two parts panel discussions and questions from the keen participants of the debate who were very engaged, informed and who were interested in the issue. The panelists included government officials, civil society organizations, traditional elders, religious leaders, lawyers, and intellectuals who have good understanding of the issues.
Nasro Abdirizak, Executive Director of Women in Media Initiative, WIMI has welcomed the participants, and emphasized the importance and potential of such debates and discussions in finding solutions for this recurring and horrible problem . She pointed out to the fact that “Every member of the community have responsibility to take their suitable role in fighting rape which is now occurring along with horrible acts such as abduction, gang rape, murder, torture and mutilation”
The main points of discussion for panelists were the causes of increase in the number of rape cases, the different roles of all stakeholders involved and suitable courses of action, responses and solutions for this huge problem. The panelists argued that the main causes of increase in the number of rape cases are drug use by aggressors, consumption of porn on the internet, negative impact of excessive and negative social media usage, impunity of previous rapists, weak anti rape laws, clan-based defense of rapists, and lack of expediting of court cases and overall hindrance in Puntland judicial system.
The activity has been done under the auspices of WIMI Stage, which is a platform created to give women, youth and marginalized people an inclusive platform through which they can reach out to the wider public and spread their creative ideas, expertise and participate in interactive debates on the pressing challenges and important questions of our time and age and generate new ideas and solutions.
In conclusion, the panelists have presented steps to be taken and suitable solutions for fighting rape, the proposed solutions included raising the level of awareness of the community, not defending rapists through clan based advocacy, control of drugs and narcotics and their usage, monitoring the internet and expediting the court process in such cases to send strong messages to would-be aggressors.
