40.4%
of the Namibian parliament is female, which marks Namibia one of the top countries
in Africa with women in decision-making roles. Namibia also scored well on the
2016 global gender gap index, ranking the country at 14 out of 144 countries.
Doreen
Sioka, the minister of gender equality and child welfare in the country, still believes
the country can move forward for the conditions of women and gender equality.
She publicly condemned child marriages in the country, saying it permanently
damages the future of the Namibian child and reinforces the gender gap.
Currently, some families are known for charging high bride prizes for their
daughters. These high bride prizes are known as labola, where some would charge
as little as 50 head of cattle for their daughters’ promise in marriage. Doreen
Sioka argues that if these families wanted to be rich, instead of sending their
daughters off, they could provide them with an education and make the same
amount.
Even
though the country has high participation of women in politics, overall,
poverty amongst the female population is high in the countries. Moving forward,
Sioka hopes to better the conditions through evidence-based policies, legal
reform, resource mobilization, and programming. The most effective way women can
acquire equal treatment is to stop turning a blind eye to child marriage in the
household and allow women to acquire an education, so then women can demonstrate
skills and abilities to counter the sceptics about women’s abilities in
general.
References:
-Mark Buckup
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