We should unite to end GBV against women in football

By Victoria Mungure, OUT Violence Against Women (VAW) occurs in all societies, at any stage of a woman's lifecycle and at any social life that women live. The violence that women face affects their day-to-day life, particularly how they participate in the mainstream of community life. Women’s participation in sports particularly in football is very low globally; one of the reasons is Gender-Based Violence, stigma, and attitudes towards women who participate in football. The situation has denied women an opportunity to leap the benefits of football sports especially good health, physical fitness, and economic opportunities. Gender-based violence (GBV) in sports refers to any physical, psychological, sexual, or economic violence perpetrated against women just because they are women’s football stakeholders. This may occur in various dimensions varied from the family level, community level, clubs’ level, and other public spaces. They may take all forms including physical, psychological/emotional, and sexual acts of violence. According to the study conducted by Global Peace Foundation Tanzania, under the support of WFT in 2021, the study came up with several recommendations that were worked on for the WFT and the Global Peace Foundation to meet with various stakeholders, to consult on how to so that the problem of Sexual Violence ends within the sports sector. There were also good recommendations to persuade various organizations and sports stakeholders to cooperate to ensure that the problem of Sexual Violence and Sexual harassment of girls involved in football ends. In addition, stakeholders suggested that the government intervene and set guidelines and policies that will lead to the protection of girls in the sports sector.

The Government of Tanzania has taken initiative in addressing Violence Against Women and Children in Tanzania by developing the National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children (NPA-VAWC). 2016/17-2021-22. Despite the efforts, women and girls in football continue to suffer from GBV because the role of The Ministry responsible for Sports is very minimal in the implementation of NPA-VAWC. Also, the community still stigmatizes women who participate in football and other sports. In light of this view, this study was conducted by GPF to establish the state of GBV in women’s football. Specifically, the study addressed three key objectives, namely to: determine and establish the magnitude of GBV in Football sport in Tanzania; determine the existing policy gap on preventing and responding to GBV in sports, and generate stakeholders’ recommendations on policy improvements to be done in football to improve women participation.

speaking to the journalist, The GPF’s Country Director, Ms. Martha Nghambi, said that, after doing the GBV study for the year 2021, this year 2022 WFT has continued to support the organization by enabling it to continue implementing part of the recommendations of the Research report. Ms. Martha says that the GPF is already continuing to meet with various stakeholders to discuss how to improve the environment of girls who play football and ensure that they are not subjected to acts of sexual violence. he has already said, GPF has met with TFF, BMT, Tanzania women's football associations and now they are preparing to meet with sports journalists and media leaders to discuss “ ...GPF we are very grateful to WFT for providing us with the funds that in 2021, we did this research and gave us a light on where to start in lobbying and advocacy. With the speed we are going to meet with stakeholders, including women players and former players, we believe that the community will gain understanding. And we want to collaborate with the government and other football bodies to create awareness in the community, especially women who participate in football, to change the attitude towards acts of humiliation for women in the sports industry” said Martha Martha added that, GPF in collaboration with WFT expect in the ongoing project to l collaborate with sports clubs and government authorities to set guidelines, rules and policies that will prevent acts of sexual violence and protect women from humiliation in sports. Also she said, the project is intending to develop innovative mechanisms for reporting and addressing Violence Against Women Footballers. This is because the study also found that there are no policies within the clubs both registered and unregistered that address Violence. The TFF and ZFF in collaboration with the responsible ministries should instruct each club to develop internal policies that aim at addressing violence against women footballers. Ensure they enhance psychosocial and other services to women and girls who are subjected to violence