South Africa: Who will listen if we cannot speak? Violence against women with disabilities

Violence against women in South Africa is recognised as a major public health concern. Absent from this recognition is the violence perpetrated against women with marginalised groups, including women with disabilities. Though sparse, a growing body of international literature suggests that there is a high prevalence of violence against women with disabilities. In South Africa however, there continues to be virtually no information available on the situation of women with disabilities and the violence they experienced.

 

Women with disabilities are relegated to the periphery of our society. Their peripheral position makes room for double marginalisation: as women they experience discrimination on the basis of their gender; and as people with disabilities, they are discriminated against because of their disability. These intersecting, marginalising factors often create multiple avenues for exclusion and increased vulnerability to violence and abuse along with fewer opportunities to escape the abuse.

 

Women with disabilities experience the same abuse as their non-disabled counterparts; they too are physically, emotionally and sexually assaulted by intimate partners. For women with disabilities the abuse may be exacerbated by the disability; with abusers finding new and inventive ways to inflict violence; like hiding wheelchairs, smashing hearing aids and stealing disability grants.

 

Despite this, violence against women with disabilities appears to have been overlooked by both the disability and gender rights movements. The failure by these groups to acknowledge the unique situation of women with disabilities has amplified their invisibility and increased their vulnerability to violence.

 

Organisations working with issues of gender-based violence have not adequately acknowledged the abuse perpetrated against women with disabilities and their particular vulnerabilities. As a result no provision has been made by these organisations to cater to the differing needs of these women. Research conducted by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) found that civil society organisations addressing gender based violence are not adequately equipped to address the needs of women with disabilities.

 

When accessing services, women with disabilities are often met with physically inaccessible buildings. No sign language interpreters at counselling services and no information in Braille or audio format further inhibits access to assistance. Where ramps are made available, they are often too narrow or too steep, limiting the use and purpose of the ramp. Additionally, limited training and understanding of disability related issues mean that those offering assistance cannot relate to or communicate with women with disabilities in an effective manner and often have to make referrals, thus incurring additional financial costs for the women who are forced to find transport and someone to assist them to go from one service provider to another.

 

The disability rights movement also appears to have overlooked violence against women with disabilities; focusing instead on education, employment, housing and disability grants. Equally as important however is the added vulnerability of women with disabilities.

 

When the very sectors that purport to represent those most marginalized and powerless in society contribute, even unconsciously to their invisibility, where do women with disabilities go in the aftermath of abuse? Who will listen to them if those that understand powerlessness and experience marginalisation, cannot hear them?

 

Government has the power and duty to ensure that women with disabilities are treated fairly and not subjected to abuse. Evidence however suggests that here too their attempts at being heard are thwarted. Although government established a comprehensive disability policy framework, in the form of the 1997 Integrated National Disability Strategy, implementation has been disappointing. It has, to date substantively failed to ensure the integration of disability issues and concerns into mainstream government programmes, and fails to attend to the gender dimensions of disability, particularly gender-based violence.

 

Who then bears the responsibility to ensure that women with disabilities are no longer invisible? Experts in the field contend that the struggle for rights and recognition needs to occur on multiple fronts; in the gender based movement and the disability movements, through recognition of the violence experienced by this group, engagement with these issues and with each other, in the provision of services and increased advocacy with policy makers and in government through the implementation and enforcement of existing policies.

 

As a gender activist I share responsibility for having rendered this group invisible and extend an invitation to those in the sector that during these 16 days and beyond women with disabilities are included in the gender based violence agenda, and that we, as representatives of the sector, make a concerted effort to engage with the issues facing women with disabilities.

 

Sadiyya Haffejee is a researcher working at the Gender Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. This commentary is based on a study titled, ‘On the Margins: Violence against women with Disabilities’ by E Naidu; S Haffejee; L Vetten and S Hargreaves and is part of a special series of commentaries on the Sixteen Days of Activism Campaign produced through the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service that provides fresh views on everyday news.