Results for domestic violence

Domestic violence is becoming increasingly common in Tonga, Tonga's Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Hon. 'Alisi Taumoepeau, said today, stressing that a change of negative attitudes toward women is just as important as taking legal steps to protect women.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES. Because our society still condones male violence, the victims cannot be properly protected. One example of condoned violence in Tongan laws was the offence of rape. Tonga’s legal system cannot effectively protect the victims of domestic violence until there is a change of attitudes and behavior across society, says Teimumu Tapueluelu, the President of the Women in Law Society. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 2, August 2003.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES: There was no looking back for Betty Blake after she accepted a challenge to help the women and children in Tonga who were being treated badly. Betty, who has been working extensively with women in the villages throughout Tonga since 1996, is sure that the first step for women to gain equality is for women to know their rights. “About 95% of the women who filled the questionnaire did not know their rights. They assumed that once they were married their husband owned everything they had, and therefore they had to be obedient, they believed ‘it is alright if he beats me because I am his wife’.” Most of the women she was dealing with had been conditioned to think this way and it was very difficult for them to break out of it. Interview from Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.