Intimate partner violence and ICTs

Tue, Feb 2, 2010

A woman is at more risk in places where she is supposed to feel safe and with people she is supposed to trust the most.

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Police officers look into the septic tank where the body was found in Bukasa, Muyenga [INSET: The deceased Brenda Karamuzi; Suspect Tom Nkurunjira

The story of a 26 year old Brenda Karamuzi, who was allegedly murdered by her lover and thrown in a septic tank is still fresh in many a Ugandan’s mind. As a young woman, I quietly lay in my bed and imagined what one can do when Beloved’s hands become weapons of mass destruction. Brenda was murdered in an upscale suburb on the outskirts of Kampala city. The house was surrounded with a concrete wall and rather big compound. May be no one would hear her cry for help.

But my imagination is Brenda being a young working woman is at least among the 8million Ugandans who have mobile phones. Whereas we don’t know the circumstances surrounding her death, my initial thoughts were couldn’t she have used her mobile phone to call the police before Beloved hit her and brought an end to her otherwise short life?

While researching about Intimate partner violence and ICTs, I came across this paper written by Aramanzan Madanda (MUK) and WOUGNET’s Berna Ngolobe and Goretti Zavuga Amuriat. In the paper, the authors note that mobile phones “give women an opportunity to break male control by opening contacts to the outside world.”

But with the rise in intimate partner violence in Uganda and elsewhere, how best can mobile phones be used to combat violence against women?

Is it possible for the police in Uganda for example to have an SMS only line or a toll free line dedicated to issues of VAW that one can quickly call when they see the hands of their loved ones become weapons of mass destruction?

But still when violence erupts, most likely the women will grab the children and not the mobile phone, so how best can ICTs be used to combat violence?

My belief is ICTs especially mobile phones have a solution in the fight against VAW but women need to be educated about their use so that they (mobile phones) don’t become the cause of violence.

I would like to hear what you think about how best we can use ICTs in the fight against VAW.