Malawi's women’s silent screams for reproductive rights

Millennium Development Goal 5 aims to reduce the level of maternal mortality by at least by 75 percent by 2015. Despite Malawi’s choruses on its wish to achieve this ambition one wonders how that will materialize as the country refuse to reform some of its restrictive laws that fuel maternal mortality. Freelance Journalist RICHARD CHIROMBO wonders why the ‘unborn known citizen’ is protected instead of saving a life of a dying woman.

Let’s face facts, in the case of abortions, the one who was supposed to be ‘principal witness’ is unknown being who does not even recognise the court’s jurisdiction and is unsure of its future and its own citizenship. Without a woman, it can not survive. Strangely, no matter what strong evidence a woman produces against that shadowy being called a foetus, the woman end up being convicted and eventually jailed.

What is the justification for jailing a woman because of the reproductive decision she has made to terminate her own pregnancy?  The answer is the ‘shameful old story’ of Malawi’s excessive lust for ancient laws framed by the colonial masters in 1930s. Despite the fact that the major causes of maternal mortality are well documented, thus severe bleeding, infections, eclampsia, obstructed labour and unsafe abortions, as a nation we pretend to be too religious and too culturally compliant that discussion on liberalising abortion laws becomes a taboo,

For those women, who take a bold decision to seek abortion because of the health, social and economic challenges they face, the verdict is the obvious one of sending them to jail, thanks to the archaic law on abortion found in Sections 149, 150 and 151 of the Penal Code.

Astonishingly on podiums, those in power proclaim that we are a sovereign state, courtesy of the independence we attained in 1964 but the contents of the Penal Code is telling a different story. As far as draconian abortion laws are concerned in the Penal Code, Malawi is still in the colonial era.

The Malawi Congress Party regime simply adopted the same draconian abortion laws wholesale. The United Democratic Front regime was too busy with other things and forgot to review them. The Democratic Progressive Party is also not progressive enough to liberalise them and we still have what the colonialists left in the Penal Code intact.

But are women happy to have those restrictive abortion laws intact in the Penal Code.

 “I believe time has come that we should be reviewing some of these laws which were framed by the colonialists. This is so because while Britain had these laws in early 1930s, they later reviewed them,” says Faustace Chirwa, executive director for National Women’s Lobby Group (Nawolg).

Chirwa adds: “As things stand, the woman can only terminate pregnancy if her life is in danger. We need to review them so that victims of brutal rape and incest can also access medical abortion. We should also consider the needs of HIV positive women.”

She contends that it is pathetic that the country forbids under-aged  rape and incest victims  to seek medical abortion ignoring the fact that their unplanned and unwanted pregnancy put their productive future into jeopardy as maintaining their pregnancy entails dropping out of school.

“What is painful is that because of the restrictive laws, once the girl dies for attempting to procure unsafe abortion, she becomes another statistic of sorrow,” says Chirwa.

She argues that the law on abortion is outdated and does not reflect changes in medical procedures and technology.  She cites Section 243 of the Penal Code which permits medical practitioners to use surgical operations in inducing abortions, yet recent research and discoveries in medical field show that pills and other means can also effectively be used in hospitals to induce abortions.

The debate on abortion is always thorny when pro-life campaigners start equating foetuses to human beings, a position which pro-abortion campaigners rubbish.

“Surely it is a huge joke to lose a life of a woman in the name of protecting the interests of a foetus. If we are to reduce maternal mortality in this country, we have to start valuing the lives of women, instead of valuing the lives of fetuses more than those of women?” said one health worker in Blantyre.

He added: “The country is wasting millions of Kwachas in post abortion care because most girls and women are resorting to backstreet abortions. Thos who do not believe this, let them visit gynaecological wards, they would be shocked with the reality of the problem of abortion.”

The problem is further compounded by the fact that the Malawi Constitution does not even define when life starts.

Solicitor General Anthony Kamanga in an interview could not say when life starts by simply saying: “I don’t want to do the research for you on that issue. Find out. Some say at conception, others have a different view.”

Asked to comment on the issue of abortion, all Kamanga said was:  “I know that the issue of abortion is a topical one. However, I do not want to be drawn into the debate. Let others debate it.”

While Kamanga says people are free to debate abortion laws, the Immigration Department says it does not treat foetuses as citizens of Malawi.

 “I have never heard of a case of a pregnant woman trying to process a passport for what is in her womb. I believe this is so because that is not stipulated in the laws. Perhaps the judiciary can have answers on that when such an incident will occur,” says Peter Kakatera, public relations officer for the Immigration Department.

The Citizenship Act stipulates the grounds for one to become a Malawian citizen. These include citizenship by birth, by descent, by marriage, by registration, by conferment, and dual citizenship of minors.

Says Kakatera: “Citizenship by birth means the time we can actually see the child.”

In traditional setting issues of abortions and still births are “women matters,” and traditional leaders do not deal with abortion cases.

Noel Msiska, coordinator for the Primary Justice Programme in Mwanza, acknowledges that “ever since we started running the programme some four years ago, we have never had chiefs settling abortion issues. Those sexual reproductive issues are treated as women issues.”

A traditional leader in Neno, Chekucheku says while abortion is criminalised, consideration should be given to rape and incest victims.

“As a traditional leader, my experience is that children born out of rape and incest incidents suffer from community prejudice. This affects their self-confidence; in a sense they are like obscure members of society.

“Secondly, we should also know that these children do not use their real surnames because the rape victims don’t know the rapists. This is the same as adopting false identities and living a lie,” says Chekucheku.

Chekucheku acknowledges that as a traditional leader he has never resolved a case bordering on abortion.

“I think you should appreciate that in our culture, issues of women’s sexual reproductive health, be it pregnancies, abortions, miscarriages, still births are dealt by elderly women. I don’t see any logic in men who do not become pregnant making decisions, laws, rules and regulations about women’s sexuality. Let’s respect our elderly women to deal with that. We believe that in our culture, here.”

While Chekucheku firmly believes that according to their traditional culture women should deal with issues of their sexuality including those on abortions, miscarriages and still-births, the colonial law in the Penal Code  which fails to appreciate that with limited access to contraceptives and safe abortion, women and girls have no option but to resort to unsafe abortions still screams – Prison sentence for those who procure and help to procure abortions except in a circumstance where a physician certifies.

Sections of the Penal Code that criminalise abortions do not only threaten Malawi’s attainment of Millennium Development Goal Number 5 but also mocks all the protocols and treaties that the country has signed on sexual reproductive health and women’s rights.

As a signatory to the Maputo Plan of Action which commits our government to address death and injury from unsafe abortion by taking action to “enact policies and legal frameworks to reduce the incidence of unsafe abortion,” one wonders why to date,  gynaecological wards are full of patients with complications resulting from unsafe abortions. This article first appeared in The Rolling Times of Malawi.

Bwana Malawian President, some silence please!

THE TWISTER

BY BRIAN LIGOMEKA

Yesterday morning, my wife told me to drop my little kid christened Bright at his kindergarten. Fifteen minutes, later, my son and I jumped out of the car and walked hand in hand past the gates of the nursery school where he is receiving his pre-school education.

“Tionana masana ano, [We will meet in the afternoon]” I told him.

“Dad, it’s either you speak to me in English or just walk out in silence,” he told me.

“Here at school it is either you speak English or keep quiet,” I never responded to him as I just turned back and walked out of their small campus and walked towards my car.

The advice from the two-year old Bright kept on ringing in my mind: “Here at school it is either you speak English or keep quiet.”   

The little boy’s caution that I should either speak a language that is acceptable at the institution or shut up moved me from my comfort zone in terms of what I have been believing all along.

I am among those who hold the ancient view that wisdom comes with age. With what my son said convinced me that most of our kids who are able to use laptops, mobiles phones, watch TVs and have access to all forms of new media boast of abundant wisdom beyond their years.

Their wisdom often goes beyond intelligence associated with their age and trying to argue with them is a mistake as you can easily find yourself arguing on the wrong side of pertinent issues. Yesterday, I just turned back without a word accepting the fact that sometimes it is better to keep quiet than behave as if you are a victim of verbal diarrhoea.

I think as a country, we are facing some problems because some people who are in power fail to take advice from those they view as little people.

Having been told by my little son that I should learn to keep quiet if I am not sure the sort of acceptable language that is spoken at their kindergarten, in the same vein I plead with President Bingu wa Mutharika to keep quiet if he is not sure the sort of language he should be using when dealing with lecturers from the national university.

I believe if Mutharika, who is both university Chancellor and Police Commander in Chief, was quiet on the academic freedom dispute, this institution of high learning would not have been closed indefinitely awaiting conclusion of legal battles.

Even during his recent trip to Mzuzu, instead of making derogatory outbursts calling his critics “stupid Europeans who listen to stupid opposition politicians,” the president would have scored free points by refraining from commenting on criticisms from little tiankhwezule.  

 I know some Public Relations experts believe that during controversies, silence in not a good strategy because when an individual or an institution says “no comment” or the media reports that that an official or the organisation “declined comment”, the court of public opinion always assumes that either the official or the organisation is hiding something or that they are in the wrong, but such assumptions are not always applicable to every feud.

Sometimes we should bear in mind that it is vital to say less than necessary.

One author Robert Greene once said: “When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control.  Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.  Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.  The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.”

Of rape and Malawi’s draconian abortion laws

BY MIKE KAMANDE

17-year-old Shira from outskirts of Balaka Town in Southern Malawi tells the tragedy that befell her about a year ago with tears rolling down her face.

“I was assaulted and brutally raped by three cruel men,” she explains.

She recounts that on that fateful day she was returning home at the end of the first term of her Form 1.

“I was walking home with my suitcase when three men emerged from the bush and assaulted me. After the assault, they took turns to rape me,” she narrates.

Upon arrival at her home, the same evening, with the support of her parents and relatives she reported the incident to Balaka Police who in turn gave her a letter to seek medical treatment at the nearby hospital.

Shira’s trauma reached its climax a month later when she went for a medical check-up where she was told the rapists had made her pregnant and had also infected her with HIV.

She asked the clinician to help her terminate the pregnancy, but her request was turned down.

“There is no way I can do that because it is a criminal offence. If I help you to procure an abortion, both of us will be arrested,” the clinician told her.

 “I am a student and next week I am supposed to be returning to school. I never planned to be pregnant as you are aware I was gang-raped and worse still I am HIV positive, hence I need an abortion,” Shira said.

“I understand your plight, but I can’t assist you because of our restrictive law on abortion,” the clinician said.

Despite her strong arguments that she never wanted to carry a pregnancy which was a result of brutal rape and which would destroy her future as keeping it would mean losing her place at school, the clinician stood her ground.

Shira returned home heartbroken as all she wanted was to terminate her unwanted pregnancy and return to school to continue with her education.

“Why should I suffer from a multiple tragedy of rape, HIV and Aids, unwanted pregnancy and losing my place in secondary school? Nobody can convince me that it was God’s plan that I should be raped, become HIV positive, become pregnant against my will. I will terminate this unwanted pregnancy so that I can continue with my education,” she told herself.

After failing to get assistance from the hospital, she went to a traditional healer.

“I really feel sorry for all the suffering you are going through after being gang-raped. I know we still have many stupid laws on abortion, which we inherited from the British colonialists and maintain them. Because you were gang-raped and you never planned to have a child as you are still pursuing secondary education, I will help you,” the traditional healer said.

Shira was surprised that the sing’anga, a mere primary school dropout was willing to assist her when a well trained physician had refused to do so despite knowing the circumstances that led to her unwanted pregnancy.

She was given assorted herbs which she was told to boil and take at home.

Desperate to terminate her pregnancy, she prepared the herbs, the moment she arrived home and took the concoction as instructed.

Two hours later trouble began. She had abdominal pains and she was bleeding heavily.

Without wasting their time, her parents hired a bicycle ambulance and took her to the same hospital.

Shira was lying on bed before the same clinician who had refused to help her procure a safe medical abortion.

The clinician offered her post-abortion treatment and care.

The next day while still on the hospital bed, Shira asked the clinician: “What next?”

“I am supposed to call the police to arrest you and the traditional healer who gave you the concoction for inducing an abortion,” the clinician responded.

He was however quick to add: “I will not report you to police because I know you are ambitious and would like to proceed with your education. With what happened to you, I am of the view that rape victims should be allowed to seek medical abortion which is safe. The problem is that by denying such rape victims safe abortions result in them seeking backstreet unsafe abortions which put their lives at risk and contribute to high maternal mortality.”

But is the problem of unsafe abortion rampant in Balaka?

Balaka Police Publicist, Titan Chadwala, believes that cases of abortions are widespread but the only setback is that abortion cases are never reported.

“There isn’t even a single case of abortion in our Research and Planning Office records. Abortions happen but since people know it’s against the law they never report them to us. What happens is that rape victims come to report to us, but when the rape cases result in unwanted pregnancies, the victims procure abortions secretly to avoid being arrested,” he said.

Chadwala said the problem of unsafe abortion is a huge burden to rural poor people because girls and women from wealthy families can easily access safe abortions from their family private doctors.

Balaka District Hospital officials refused to speak on the matter. However, an unofficial source disclosed that the hospital handles, on average, over 20 post-abortion complications a month.

While Shira, the traditional healer and the physician who assisted her believes that the law should be reviewed so that rape victims can access safe abortions in hospitals, in the same town of Balaka Father Andrew Kaufa has strong reservations against such proposition.

“Catholicism forbids abortion except in cases where it jeopardizes life of the woman,” he explains.

“An ethical decision in sync with the Law of God whether at primary or secondary level need to be contemplated before it can be done. From a Christianity perspective, it’s wrong because even being HIV positive these days can’t be validation for seeking abortion,” says Father Kaufa of the Roman Catholic Church.

Another opponent of proposal to review abortion is Sheik Mussa Matola of Balaka Islamic Institute who says it’s deplorable for a Muslim to take life of any human being without the sanction of the Sharia.

“In fact it’s unacceptable to take animal life gratuitously as the Qur’an states that don’t kill any life which Allah has ordained sacred except by the demand of justice.” said he.

Balaka based Nkhadze Alive Youth Organization (Nayorg) executive director Charles Sinetre despite admitting the existence of the problem of prostitution and the resultant unsafe abortions, has reservations with liberalising such laws.

“We advocate for abstinence and safe sex. We have not been advocating for the liberalisation of abortion laws.” said Sinetre.

Despite that opposition from the church, Bridget Mbeya, a Form 4 student at St. Louis Montfort in Balaka believes that the current abortion law should be reviewed.

 “The current abortion law is outdated and should be reviewed. Why should a rape victim be denied access to safe medical abortion?” she quizzes.

And what does Shira say: “The opponents of legalising abortions have never suffered the trauma and the consequences of being a rape victim. As a rape victim my message to government is simple – Let rape victims be allowed to access safe abortions if they choose to terminate their unwanted pregnancy. Religion and culture should not be used in such circumstances because religion never encourages rape. The law should punish rapists not rape victims as it is at the moment by denying them access to safe abortions.”

The author is a freelance journalist and university student.

Slow down Mr. President: For Peter’s sake, at least

THE TWISTER

BY BRIAN LIGOMEKA

Peter Mutharika is a lucky dude. Most of us just dream of being a relation to a State President, let alone having a brother for a president. Not that he needs relations in high places to make it, anyway. Peter has accomplished a lot in his own right. You just have to look at his CV that this is for the man on the move.

In marketing there is a concept of brand association. In its simplest form, when one product reminds you of another because they both belong to the same brand family or they have similar attributes. For example, if you enjoy reading The Sunday Times as I do, then knowing that The Daily Times is also published by BNL, you would be encouraged to try out the Daily Times on account of its cousin The Sunday Times. In time you just ask for the Times instead of asking for a newspaper because the two are associated.

I suspect that those who crafted the early campaign to endorse Peter Mutharika as a potential successor of his brother may have been inspired by this phenomenon. Bingu wa Mutharika accomplished so much under very trying circumstances during his first five years, they must have reasoned that the young brother could do even better under more inviting conditions.

I must say, that this sounded very logical until we began to depart from the people centred path, development focused journey and headed to you know where. At the risk of being given 72 hours to pack up and go, the issues of our new destination have been raised and documented well and there is no need to repeat them here.

Trouble is, through brand association, if you are unhappy with a product your first reaction is also to reject the other brands associated to it. This is about perception. It has nothing to do with reality which could be different. The current president should know this one better. Malawians almost rejected to give him his first term. It wasn’t so much about him as many people did not know him at that point but rather who was he associated with. People feared that the man on whose shoulder Bingu was hoisted could be the one pulling the strings once he got into office. We were only able to prove that theory wrong after the elections were gone.

Now the president is on record that Peter Mutharika is “free to stand and contest for any position. And I mean any position” and that he should not be punished simply because he has a brother for a president. And I agree totally. The trouble is that through brand association Peter will either benefit or be punished for his brother’s successes or failures. The issue is not whether the young professor is capable or has a good CV? It is all about brand association.

Maybe in the light of this revelation, the president could review if some of the decisions he has been making lately will destroy or enhance his brother’s chances for the high office.  Some of the decisions though are tantamount to de-campaigning the brother. But there is no cause for panic. Malawians have a short memory and 2014 is too far away. He could mend his ways and put the Mutharika dynasty train back on track.

There are a few house keeping issues the president needs to do to help his party and brother. He should slow down on antagonizing everyone.  You just have to listen to those phone in programmes to gauge the mood of the general populace. It is not pleasant. The second point is to free the hand of young Mutharika. It may have been ok sixty odd years ago to go and sort out whoever was bothering his young brother. It is no longer cool to do that today. Let him fight his own battles. He is more than capable. Let the work of his hands bear testimony too.

The starting point should be the ongoing impasse between university lecturers and Government. Let Peter Mutharika demonstrate what he is made of. The elder brother shouldn’t have jumped the gun, but that is history. It is time to reboot.

Readers will remember those standing ovations that Peter Mutharika got at both the Great Hall in Zomba and at Mzuzu University when he presented those very well received public lectures. Come to think of it, were those lectures supposed to lay the ground work for the start of the campaign itself.

For starters, with over 40 years under his belt as an acclaimed scholar Peter knows exactly from which zoo the animal called academic freedom came from. All he needs is to remind those naughty professors that he is one of them and that all those years in academic corridors abroad he was having academic freedom for breakfast. He has tasted it, it is good and that now he cannot have it any other way – especially that he is also Minister of Education. He could then have assured them that they leave the azina, the other Peter from Chiradzulo to him to deal with.

I have a nagging suspicion that those questioning academic minds would have given him another standing ovation and returned to class if he had done that earlier. Even today, the drama that is going on in court between the University Council and the lecturers,  Peter Mutharika is among the few that  can make sense of it all. No it is not too late Peter. Go back to the president and tell him: “brother let me handle this. Why do you think I was put on a panel to arbitrate on Uncle Bob’s issues in Zimbabwe? Please give me a chance to prove myself.”

The president should not have problems with such a request, if not for the sake of our children who don’t know when they will return to school then definitely for the sake of Peter. Look, if Peter cannot be trusted to handle a problem with one university, how shall he cope with seven universities? Or will the elder brother hang around to do it for him? Why would he not let him handle problems in a ministry that he is heading? 

I don’t think Malawians really know Peter and here is an opportunity for him to score some browning points. It is just a matter of time before some misguided Malawians after drowning in kabanga or ntonjani should start asking silly questions like: “if he can’t trust him to handle the university problem, should we trust him with the whole country to run come 2014?”

This article first appeared in The Daily Times of Malawi