Domestic violence against women as an inequality: A

case from Ethiopia (on rural women)

By Legesse Tigabu

Submitted to: Professor Susanne Baer

An assignment on Equality: Law and Politics

Oct, 2009
CEU, Budapest, Hungary
 Introduction
In rural parts of Ethiopia, there are predominant social and religious norms which declare women
inequality with men. Even though rural women’s contribution is significant in agricultural production and
domestic food processing, still they have low status in economic, social and political aspects and they are
subordinate to men. Especially their economic dependency on men because of social and religious norms
dictates them to live in worst situations of domestic violence. This paper will show how the problem is
complex because of intersectionality of grounds and then will forward feasible solutions to avert the
problem.

For better clarity, the paper is divided into seven sections. Under section one, the role of rural women and
their social, economic and political status will be addressed. Section two will address the laws and policies
about women in Ethiopia. Section three and four will focus on primary factors which are responsible for
domestic violence in rural Ethiopia and those factors which aggravate the problem. Section five will
address intersectionality of grounds and domestic violence in rural Ethiopia. Lastly, section six and seven
will provide conclusion and recommendations.

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 Statement of the problem

Despite the fact that rural women contribute much in agricultural production and domestic food processing,
they are economically dependent on men and such economic dependency exposed them to domestic
violence. There are different factors including religious and social norms, illiteracy, poverty and poor law
enforcement mechanisms which intersectionally make such problem harsh. The writer will depict how such
grounds intersecting each other make domestic violence the worst in rural Ethiopia.

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I) The role of women and their social, economic and political status in Ethiopia
General overview

In Ethiopia women have the low social, economic and political status and gender inequality, domestic
violence and subordination of women are the results of such status. Women constitute 49.8% of the total
Ethiopian population according to the national report made by Ethiopia by the women’s affairs sub sector
in 20041 and they contribute much in the agricultural production generally and food production for
domestic or family use particularly. But they are not enjoying the fruits of their labor equally with men 2 and
they are subject to subordination and domestic violence by men which is not well touched by studies until
recent times.
Under this section, firstly, I will try to show the role of rural women in the agriculture sector and domestic
food production and their economic status. Secondly, I will address the social status of rural women in
Ethiopia. And thirdly, the political status of women, especially in the federal parliament and state councils
and its implications on the political status of rural women will be explored.

1. The role of rural women and their economic status

As I explained above, women in Ethiopia play a crucial role in the agricultural sector and food production.
Even though there is no recent data on such role, the study conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture in
1992 revealed that 40% of agricultural labor in Ethiopia is covered by women.3 Women are also
responsible for the production of domestic food for family consumption. In this regard, the day to day
activity of rural women in Ethiopia is tiresome. They have to prepare break fast in the early morning for the
whole family and then the will work the whole day on farm land together with men. Specially, in Amhara
region, women actively participate in land preparation, weeding, harvesting, threshing and storing crops
and they are also responsible for herding, watering animals and milk processing in the livestock

1
A National Report on Progress made in the Implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action, Prime Minister Office/Women's Affairs Sub Sector, Ethiopia ,
March 2004.P.2
2 Ibid p.2
3 Gender, Agricultural Development and Food Security in Amhar, Ethiopia, Emily Frank, 1999, P.3

2
3

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production.4 When it gets night, they have to prepare dinner for the family. Here, one can easily understand
how the labor contribution of rural women in Ethiopia is significant.

Even though women’s labor contribution in rural Ethiopia is significant, they have no equal economic
status with men. As it will be explained in the subsequent parts of this paper, in rural Ethiopia, most of the
time men are family heads and they are ultimate decision makers on economic and family matters. Usually
women have no equal access to the most important economic resources like land. 5 This in turn resulted in
women’s subordination to men and exposed them to domestic violence.

2. The social status of rural women in Ethiopia

In rural parts of Ethiopia, like their economic status, women have low social status. Especially in a
marriage relationship, as the husband is the head of the family traditionally, women owe obedience to the
decisions of the husband in all aspects of social life.6 The problem is so grave in cases in which early
marriage is concluded because such domination by men will be imposed on women who are not matured
enough to challenge such psychological as well as physical harms. There are still regions where girls as
young as 8 and 9 years old are wedded and in such cases the marriage is arranged by parents of the couples
without the consent of the couples.7 Such early marriage is naturally followed by early child bearing and
other household responsibilities which will place women at the lower social status.8

3. The political status of rural women in Ethiopia

Women in rural Ethiopia are also politically inferiors. They spend their time at home preparing food for
family consumption and keeping their children. Under such circumstances, they have no time to participate
in the political affairs. Such gender disparity in Ethiopian politics is clearly visible in the House of People’s
Representatives and State Councils.9 Presently, women constitute only 7.6% of seats in the House of
Peoples Representatives and 12.9% in the State councils.10 This means that women’s interest in Ethiopia is

4
Ibid p.3
5
Shadow report, by Ethiopian Women’s Association, 2003, P. 24
6
Ibid p. 29
7
Ibid p. 32
8
Shadow report, by Ethiopian Women’s Association, 2003, P. 32
9
Ibid p. 16
10
A National Report on Progress made in the Implementation of the Beijing
Platform for Action, Prime Minister Office/Women's Affairs Sub Sector, Ethiopia ,
March 2004.P.2

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not well represented in the political institutions and this makes it difficult to address, through policy
making, the complex problems faced by rural women as it will be explained subsequently.

II) The laws and policies about women in Ethiopia

When we see the legal situation about women in Ethiopia, the FDRE (Federal Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia) Constitution sets guidelines for gender equality and specific laws are enacted in line with such
guidelines. The constitution declared the principle of equality under Art 25 and it addresses gender
equality specificlly in its other provisions. Art 25 which is an open ended provision prohibits all types of
discrimination based on any status or ground. It says “All persons shall be equal before the law and shall
be entitled to equal protection of the law without any discrimination whatsoever. All persons shall be
entitled to equal and adequate guarantees without distinction of any kind such as race, nation, nationality,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or social origin, property, birth or other status.”11

To ensure equal participation of women in the political and social life, the constitution confirmed the right
of women to full consultation in the formulation and execution of national policies under Art 35.12 This
provision also affirmed affirmative action for women, equlty of women with men in their marriage
relationship, their equal right to own and transfer land and other properties, and their equal access to social
services. The Federal revised Family Code and other laws and policies of Ethiopia follow such
constituional guide lines. Ethiopia is also a party to the CEDAW Convention and affirmed International
Bill of Rights. Therefore, the legal situasion about women has also such international dimension.

III) Gender, culture and religion as primary factors responsible for domestic violence

Even though the constituion and subsidisry laws of Ethiopia highly insist on gender equlity, the reality is
inequality and subordination of women to men basically because of gender, cultural and religious factors
and this ultimately leads to domestic voilence against women. In this regard rural women are exposed to
the most serious domestic violence as economic and social domination by men in rural areas is of high
intensity. In some circumstances there are also laws which backup discriminatory religious and customary
practices. In some regions for example, states’(regions’) constituions and family cods don’t prohibit

11
Art 25 of FDRE constitution
12
Shadow report, by Ethiopian Women’s Association, 2003, P. 15

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polygamy and this allows some muslim societies in Ethiopia to use their religious norms so that a man can
marry and control so many women as he want.13 This is a big problem, because, the federal family code
which prohibits such act is applicable only in Addis Ababa (the capital city) and Diredewa and other 8
states are left free to regulate family matters. State of Oromia for example, has also amened its land use
legislation to allow a man with polygamous marriage to have as many land certificates as he has wives with
whom he holds the land in common.14 Such legal and religious norms are still working even though they
are in clear contradiction with the constituionally declared principle of equality.

Women are also discriminated because of their gender in rural areas. The social attitude in Ethiopia is that
women are not capable to decide on key roles in social life. In this regard cultural norms are the most
responsible factors for gender discrimination agaisnt women. Forinstance, in rural Ethiopia wife beating is
culturally accepted practice. Such practie is deep rooted in the society that even women accepted such
practice as apprropriate.15 Domestic violence such as beating are justified on grounds like arguing with the
husband, going outside without telling him, neglecting the children and refusing sexual relations with
him.16 All the above factors together placed rural women in physically and psychologically hazardious life
systems.

IV) Illiteracy, poverty and poor law enforcement as factors aggravating domestic
violence against women in rural Ethiopia

Factors like illiteracy, poverty and poor law enforcement mechanism aggravate domestic violence faced by
Ethiopian rural women. In rural Ethiopia poverty occurs frequently and women suffer the most as they have
no economic decision making power because of cultural and religious norms.17 Illiteracy is also the other
factor making the life of rural women worse in Ethiopia. Most of rural women are illiterate. They don’t
know their rights and they accept male’s domination in the society.18The other problem is that, law
enforcement mechanisms in relation to domestic violence against women are poor. It is only in few cases
that domestic violence is reported. Customary practices are still dominant and the supremacy of the

13
Ibid p. 31
14
Shadow report, by Ethiopian Women’s Association, 2003, P. 31
15
Ibid p. 30
16
Ibid .p. 30
17
A National Report on Progress made in the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, Prime
Minister Office/Women's Affairs Sub Sector, Ethiopia , March 2004.P. 4
18
Shadow report, by Ethiopian Women’s Association, 2003, P. 11

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constitution over customary rules is not well implemented.19 What is more, the court system in the country
is sophistical, unfriendly and inaccessible to the uneducated and poor women who face marital crisis.20

V) Gender inequality, Intersectionality of grounds, and domestic violence in Ethiopia

Now I will try to show how the facts that I have mentioned beforehand can be described as inequality, how
grounds intersect each other and what type of discrimination is faced by Ethiopian rural women who are
exposed to domestic violence. As I have explained it before, even though there is dejure (legal) gender
equality in most cases in Ethiopia, the reality is inequity and despite the fact that gender inequality is a
reality any where in the world21, the situation in rural Ethiopia is extreme.

Here, gender inequality of Ethiopian rural women has two aspects. Firstly, they are discriminated and
placed in the lower position because of gender, culture and religion in rural areas and thus they are not
treated equally with men. Secondly, even though they are disadvantaged groups, they are not treated
differently and thus government fails to take steps actively to promote greater equality of opportunity for
such particular groups of the society.22 Under such circumstances, Ethiopian government is not expected
only to ensure the absence of general discrimination from its employment, educational and other functions
but also to act positively to promote equality of opportunity between different groups 23 because rural
women are exposed to extraordinary or special problems of inequality. Since the government fails to do so,
inequality of rural women in Ethiopia is still grave.

Here, both types of discrimination (direct and indirect) are occurred in Ethiopia regarding rural women.
Firstly, as I explained it before, there are some state (regional) legislations and religious and customary
practices which directly discriminate rural women by giving better positions for men. Different treatment of
this kind will be direct discrimination since there is no objective and reasonable justification. 24 Secondly, in
all other cases, there is indirect discrimination because Ethiopian government while formulating measures
and policies for gender equality in general, it failed without objective and reasonable justification, to treat

19
Ibid p. 32
20
Ibid p. 34
21
Sex equality Chatarinne.A Mackinnon, 2007, p. 1
22
Human rights and European equality law, Christopher McCRudden and Harris Kountouros, P. 4
23
Ibid p. 4
24
The prohibition of discrimination under the European Human Rights Law, De Schutter, p.16

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rural women (category of women who faced special problems of gender inequality) differently by
providing for an exception to the application of the general rule.25

Now let me explain how intersectionality of different grounds that I have discussed beforehand resulted in
worst domestic violence against rural women in Ethiopia. Rural women of Ethiopia face a set of multiple
and crosscutting and interrelated problems.26 As I have explained before, firstly, rural women of Ethiopia
are discriminated and they are subordinate to men because of their gender and this is supported by culture.
Religious norms then make the problem grave. Rural women who are already exposed to discrimination
and subordination because of gender and culture are placed in more serious problems of discrimination and
subordination when religious norms become additional factors. Ethiopian rural women faced the worst
discrimination and subordination and are exposed to serious domestic violence when factors like poverty,
illiteracy and poor law enforcement are added to the above factors.

Here, rural women of Ethiopia, opt to live under such difficult situation because they don’t have sufficient
access to economic resources as religious and cultural norms give priority for men and they are thus
economically dependent. A married woman for example will opt to live with her husband even though
there is domestic violence against her because land is usually registered in the husband’s name and this puts
her in a weaker position and the culture itself doesn’t allow her to claim such land from her husband. 27 That
means, to divorce without having access to economic resources will be more difficult for her and she will
opt to live with a man who inflicts domestic violence against her. When all grounds that I have discussed
intersect, poor and uneducated women will be the most vulnerable to domestic violence as justice will be
economically unaffordable to them or since they may not know at all that they have rights.

Generally, rural women in Ethiopia are differently situated in economic, social and political aspects and
when reform efforts are taken on behalf of women, they ignore such peculiar situation.28 As long as
Ethiopian government doesn’t give special emphasis for rural women, it is impossible to achieve the
objectives of gender mainstreaming and the CEDAW convention to which Ethiopia is a party.

25
The prohibition of discrimination under the European Human Rights Law, De Schutter, p.16
26
Shadow report, by Ethiopian Women’s Association, 2003, P. 8
27
Ibid p. 24
28
Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex, 1989, p. 83

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Since Ethiopian government fails to assess the implications of its legislations and actions towards rural
women who are in special need, it fails to pursue the objectives of gender mainstreaming.29 The
government by ignoring such particular situation also fails to achieve the obligation under the CEDAW
convention which obliges member states to give special consideration for rural women. The government
also didn’t formulate and implement gender budgeting policies to achieve objectives of gender
mainstreaming. Rural women are not treated differently and there is no gender budgeting policy which
gives due consideration for them. Here I am not discussing the issues gender mainstreaming and gender
budgeting in detail, but I am saying little just to show how domestic violence against rural women in
Ethiopia (which is the basic concern of my paper) is left unexplored and without being addressed because
of the government’s failure to pursue those objectives of gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting
towards rural women. Therefore, even though rural women of Ethiopia are in a different situation than
other women and even though they face peculiar type of domestic violence which is the result of
intersectionality of grounds, such problem is not differently treated.

VI) Conclusion

Generally, even though Ethiopian rural women are playing crucial role in the agricultural production and
domestic food processing, they are left behind having low economic, social and political status. Equality
principles in the FDRE Constitution and the Federal Revised Family Code which insist on gender equality
are not implemented to benefit Ethiopian rural women. Rural women in Ethiopia are still the most
vulnerable groups to domestic violence as they are dependent economically because of social, religious,
and legal factors. Added to this, factors like illiteracy, poverty and poor law enforcement mechanisms
aggravate the problem faced by rural Ethiopian women. Then those factors intersect each other and make
domestic violence the worst. As religious and social norms which give lower status for women are
prevalent in rural Ethiopia, women are placed at the bottom and the fact that most rural women are illiterate
and poor and the poor law enforcement mechanisms force them to live in a harsh and violent situation.

It means that a rural Ethiopian woman who has already been discriminated because of religious and social
norms which are in some cases supported by law, will face the most serious domestic violence in the
country because of her lack of knowledge as she is illiterate and low financial resources because of her
29
Not waving but drowning, Charles , 2005, p.4

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poorness and she then will opt to live in hard situations where domestic violence is prevalent and such
special problem is not treated by the government differently even though the situation needs special
treatment to eliminate domestic violence in rural Ethiopia.

VII) Recommendations

The writer highly recommends the following five points to avert the special and serious domestic violence
faced by rural Ethiopian women.
1) Firstly, Ethiopian government has to devise a mechanism to treat the situation of rural
Ethiopian women differently. As it is explained before, rural women in Ethiopia live under worst
domestic violence compared to other women. So, to eliminate such serious domestic violence
faced by rural women, the government has to set up special institutions to work efficiently to ward
elimination of such domestic violence against women in rural Ethiopia.
2) Secondly, government has to educate the rural society to change the attitudes and social
norms which discriminate women and it has to educate women so that they can be active
participants in all aspects of social, economic and political life.
3) Regional governments which have laws which support discriminatory social and religious
norms have to repeal or amend their laws.
4) The government has to improve the economic status of rural women by creating better
work opportunity to avoid their economic dependency.
5) Lastly, the government has to make judicial institutions (courts) easily accessible to rural
women and has to educate them about the legal rights which they can claim to get remedy when
they are violated.

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