The 16 Days of Activism campaign is a reminder for women to stand together in solidarity and speak openly about the violence they face.
Deaconess Temalesi Makutu of the Methodist Church made the comments in an interview with The Fiji Times during this year’s campaign.
She said the campaign was “a calling out for women to stand together in solidarity, to prevent and end gender-based violence of any form”.
“It is… trying to break violence, and at the same time breaking the silence,” she said.
“We have been taught… that when anything happens, it is a way of us being taught by our husbands … but in actual fact, I think we need, we need to break the silence so that we come up front and be able to … pick up the courage to be able to say that this is happening and I don’t like what is being done to me.”
She said women needed to be respected.
“I have to be respected.
“I have to be honoured of who I am in the light of God, making me equal with a man.”
Deaconess Makutu said churches had not done enough to address violence.
“I haven’t seen much, sorry to say.”
She said that while weekly church programs continued, little attention was given to violence against women and girls.
She said the work must start within families.
“It goes back to the family where it is important that a child is nurtured, a child is taught, a child is trained with the values that he or she needs to uphold.”
She said strengthening family-focused church programs and reinterpreting scripture could help shift attitudes towards women.
