When men decry violence in homes

In the back room of a village hall, a workshop participant confesses that he hit his wife and son, despite a pledge to renounce the most brutal form of traditional male power.“How do I stop?” he asks members of the Nicaraguan Association of Men Against Violence (Asociacion de Hombres Contra la Violencia, or AHCV). “How do I prove myself a man without violence?” he asks.His compatriots do not excuse him or offer easy answers. Instead, they struggle together to “unlearn machismo” through honest and painful self-reflection.The emergence of a vigorous, pro-feminist men’s movement in Nicaragua, dedicated to eradicating gender and family violence at the personal and political levels, have surprised many.More than 30 years of civil war, political upheaval, a World Bank- and IMF imposed structural adjustment programme and a string of natural disasters, have turned this Central American country into one of the poorest in the western hemisphere.In particular, the insurrection against the Somoza dictatorship in the 1970s, and atrocities committed in the 1980s by the United States-backed Contras, to destabilise the government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), devastated the economy and brutalised the population. Over three quarters of families live in poverty, according to the latest census figures, and sharp rises in unemployment during the past decade of right-wing government have been accompanied by violent crime- especially against women.A 1998 survey by the state Statistics and Census Institute found 29 % of women from all classes and backgrounds to have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of their partners.Other studies suggest that levels of gender violence may be even higher. ‘Candies in Hell’, a 1995 study of 488 women in the city of Leon, found that 60% of women interviewed had been victims of either physical, sexual or psychological violence. Thirty-one per cent of abused women suffered physical violence during pregnancy.The provocative title came from one Leon woman, Ana Cristina, who told interviewers that after her husband, a Sandinista soldier, beat her, “...he would try to court me... he would buy me clothes.... And then my grandmother would say to me: ‘Child, what are you going to do with candies in hell?”The study was conducted in association with the Nicaraguan Women’s Network Against Violence (WNAV), one of the region’s most vibrant women’s organisations. It has scored significant victories from the last two conservative governments, such as the 1996 legislation (Law 230), which prohibits all forms of violence in families, including psychological violence, and the establishment of women’s offices, which counsel abused women in 13 police stations.Shocked by the scale of male violence, and with encouragement and pressure from WNAV that men must change their private behaviour, a small but influential group of men came together in 1993 to address the issue of women’s social justice.In the process, the Managua Men’s Group Against Violence (GHCV), also responded to men’s concerns. “Many of us were unhappy with a socially imposed model that encouraged us to drink, fight, dominate, and sexually conquer women,” explains group member Oswaldo Montoya. The group’s first slogan was: “Violence also impoverishes men’s lives.” By 1999, the group had organised over 360 men in all-male workshops and two national conventions, leading to the founding of the AHCV in 2000. Evidence suggests that working with men does have an impact on their behaviour. A survey of 112 male workshop participants and their partners found significant changes in self-reported incidence and frequency of domestic violence after such courses. Unlearning machismo takes a lifetime, acknowledges Juan Jimenez Vasquez, executive coordinator of AHCV. “I’m not rid of all my baggage,” he admits.Patrick Welsh, author of the recent publication: Men Aren’t From Mars: Unlearning Machismo in Nicaragua, says the dynamic partnership between women’s and men’s groups flows from the country’s 10-year (1979-1990) revolutionary FSLN experiment.Although the male-controlled movement worked to improve women’s lives, it was reluctant to share power with women. Nonetheless, the revolution had a lasting impact on women’s sense of their rights. For a minority of FSLN men, the Sandinista vision of social justice also led to the creation of the GHCV.In 1998, its commitment to gender equity was profoundly tested when Zoilamerica Narvaez publicly accused her step-father, former FSLN President Daniel Ortega, of sexually abusing her from the age of 11.Ortega, a member of the National Assembly, claimed parliamentary immunity and refused to stand trial. Other male National Assembly members rallied behind Ortega, claiming the Zoilamerica affair was a “private matter” and her petition for justice has been shelved. The accusation shook GHCV members, many of whom were strongly identified with the Sandinistas.“Ortega had been our hero,” Jimenez recalls. The group went public in its support of Zoilamerica.Ends