Press Release: HelpAge International

The Older Woman: A Vulnerable Victim of Violence

Nairobi, 21st November –The world is ageing faster today than at any other time in history. Research has shown that as this continues to happen, women are the survivors. They outlive their male counterparts who are more likely to suffer from deadly conditions such as lung and prostate cancers, heart disease or strokes. The world therefore continues to become predominantly a woman's world.

As the world marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25th November, HelpAge International pays attention to the plight of the older woman, she who is more likely to suffer violence than her male counterpart.

The older woman faces double discrimination. First as an older person (wherever they are, older people are marginalised by their communities) and then as a woman. Throughout Africa, she is denied opportunities by virtue of her gender – she is denied property rights, excluded from the decision making process and is denied opportunities to education and employment.

Violence against older women takes many forms – rape, physical abuse upon suspicion of practicing witchcraft and sometimes death in the hands of her own sons or close relatives out to disinherit her of property upon the death of her husband. In some places, AIDS sufferers believe that having sex with an older woman cures them of the disease, thus placing older women at great risk in those communities. Although it was not reported as being a cleansing exercise, an elderly woman was recently found murdered in Narok after being raped. Living in a sexist society, the older woman, if she survives such atrocities, is hesitant to report any such violence meted on her for fear of being taunted by junior male officers at police stations.

In some countries, older women are suspected to be witches by virtue of living into old age. They are subjected to vicious physical violence which either kills them or maims them for life. “People wonder how we manage to live so long,” says an older woman in Tanzania.

The Fourth World Conference on Women held in 1995 in Beijing adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which acknowledged that the older woman belongs to that group of women who are especially vulnerable to violence. Not only has her physical strength diminished over the years, she also lives in a society where she is only to be seen and not heard. Widows are particularly vulnerable as they have no one to stand up for them in a paternalistic society.

HelpAge International asserts that older people have rights as do other age groups. Older people’s rights are human rights. The United Nations Principles for Older Persons state in part that older persons (in this case the older woman) should be able to live in dignity and security and be free of exploitation and physical or mental abuse regardless of age or gender. Older women therefore have a right to protection against violence.

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* HelpAge International is a global network of not-for-profit organisations with a mission to work with and for disadvantaged older people worldwide to achieve a lasting improvement in the quality of their lives.

For more information please contact:
HelpAge International
Africa Regional Development Centre
PO Box 14888, 00800 Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254-020) 4444289, 4446991, 4449407; Fax: 4441052; Email: [email protected] [2]