It’s sorcery when she’s happy!

By REBECCA KUKU
In parts of Papua New Guinea, people believe that death and illness are caused by sorcery.
Most often those accused of sorcery are women and old men. Women accused of sorcery are sometimes tortured, beaten, raped and murdered in public places which led to the 2013 repeal of the Sorcery Act of 1971 which acknowledged the accusation of sorcery as a plausible defence in murder cases.
Following the repeal, the Government then said that sorcery-related killings would be treated as murder and the death penalty would be applicable to those who killed alleged sorcerers. However, to date, the death penalty is yet to be applied to the perpetrators who murder women accused of sorcery and countless women are still being accused, tortured, raped and murdered for allegedly practicing sorcery.
But with the emergence of the death penalty the trend of accusing women of causing illness and death using sorcery has decreased and a new trend is slowly taking precedence; one in which women are now being accused of using a form of sorcery in what locals call malala (marlia in other areas) to make husbands love them and their children more than their parents and families.
A number of women are being accused of practicing or using malala to make husbands love them, respect them and discuss important decisions with them, which goes against the traditional norms where women are not supposed to be consulted for important matters.
Recently a mother of two who is now in one of the safe houses in Port Moresby was accused by her mother-in-law for using malala on her husband to gain his love and respect, was attacked by members of her husband’s family, her hand was chopped off as she fought back with her in-laws who were trying to behead her.
Another woman was attacked by her in-laws after her mother-in-law and sister-in-law accused her of using malala to get money from her husband to buy food and necessities for their children.

A denial of rights
The new trend is slowly pushing women into submitting all their rights to families they marry into.
The normal argument is that a woman should not be loved more than her husband’s relatives and should not be consulted on any family matters. She should not receive any money from her husband to support her and their children.
And when a woman is seen to be loved by her husband and taken into consideration for every decision the husband makes then she is a sorcerer who has used malala to gain favours from her husband. The new trend is more dangerous than the old one as it affects a woman’s right in their homes, the very place where she is supposed to feel safe and loved.
Women are beaten by their in-laws and sometimes even murdered for practicing malala. More than 20 cases of such incidents have been reported in the capital city, Port Moresby. Whilst many incidents in rural areas go unreported simply because whole families are against women (wives) and with no one to support them, those who do manage to survive the attacks are mentally and physically abused while the perpetrators walk away freely.
Family and Sexual Violence Unit (FSVU) officer Mary-Louise Avu says that most times, female relatives are the ones who instigate the accusations.

Women against women
“In most cases it’s the women’s husband’s female family members who instigate the whole problem. And it’s really sad, when you see that women start the cycle that eventually leads to the attack of another woman.
“I think the way forward would be to educate women in this country on what their words can do; it all comes down to the power of the tongue,” she said.
Avu said that women had to learn to respect one another and stand together to fight gender-based violence (GBV) and sorcery-related violence.
A Southern Highlands women’s rights advocate, Dorothy Tenis also said that another contributing factor to the issues was the cultural practice of bride price.
“The female relatives who look after the family pigs, which are then used to pay for the bride price of a sister-in-law believe that because the woman was paid for with their pigs, their sister in law must give them the best of everything.
“When this does not happen, they then complain about their male relatives not giving them money and eventually blame the wife, accusing her of using malala to stop the husband from giving them money which they believe is rightfully theirs because they are the men’s sister, mother, cousin or daughter.
“But in most cases, or from my experience in all the cases I’ve come across, it’s the sister-in-laws and mother-in-laws who go around and tell the rest of the family members that the woman is using malala to control her husband,” she said.
Mothers, daughters, sisters are being attacked, tortured, some even raped and murdered for using malala and it not only affects women in the rural areas but those in the city as well – career women and house wives, it does not differentiate or care.
The Government must come clear on what the penalties are for the perpetrators and the instigators of gender-based violence and sorcery-related violence.