Cruelty To Girls Unacceptable

The picture of a teenage girl being flogged as two young men restrain her so she would suffer maximum pain jolted everybody who saw it.

For those who wondered whether the primitive conduct took place in Ghana or not finding out eventually that it did they could not manage their disappointment.

If the existence of a Domestic Violence Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) is not a sufficient deterrent against such crude behavior we can only imagine what would have been the case had the unit not being operative.

We thought, as a people, we have left these crude ways of dealing with social issues many years ago. For remnants of such behavior to linger on, as evident in the story, calls for a concerted action of all to root out.

There is no justification for anybody, not even the parents of the girl to subject her to the kind of treatment she went through simply because she was perceived to be socially deviant.

She was alleged to have returned home late in the night – a suggestion that she could have gone on a promiscuous mission.

In a civilized society such as ours where the freedom of the individual is enshrined in our constitution, anybody who breaches this critical segment of our human rights must be sanctioned after due process.

We concur with the angst of the Gender Minister upon hearing about the sad incident. The law enforcement agency and for that matter, DOVVSU, must fish out the culprits whoever they are, no matter their relationship with the victim and prosecute them.

We would be surprised if that has not been done already. Our society is not like others elsewhere where brothers of a girl suspected to have had sexual affair outside marriage can murder her in the name of protecting the honour of their family.

We pride ourselves as belonging to a society of laws and so crude tactics or actions which tend to restrict the freedom of others must be dealt with in tandem with existing statutes.

The importance of providing strong deterrents in the Tamale setting where the injustice occurred cannot be overlooked lest it is accepted as a norm and replicated by others even outside the municipality.

It is our wish that the Gender Minister attaches seriousness to the issue by detailing an officer from the Ministry to ensure that the case does not die.

Without such ministerial eyes on the case, DOVVSU officials could succumb to the pressure of some hidden political hands and let the culprits off the hook.

In a social media powered world of which we are a part, the picture could have found itself in places outside Ghana.

With Christiane Amanpour already spreading lies about our country, such an occurrence must be dealt with according to law as a major statement that we are a civilized people and when some of us breach civility, they would surely be sanctioned.