The human rights report for the year 2023 has revealed that gender-based violence (GBV) remains a significant threat to women’s rights in Tanzania. Prepared by the Legal and Human Rights Centre, the report highlights that women continue to face physical, psychological, and sexual violence.

Psychological violence manifests in various forms, including verbal abuse, humiliation, neglect, and abandonment. Notably, some men abandon their intimate partners upon pregnancy, leading to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

Tragically, this contributes to instances of infanticide, as some women, especially young ones, resort to abandoning or even discarding their babies in toilets.

Societal justifications for men abandoning their families persist, with reports indicating that some leave their wives for other women immediately after childbirth, only to return when the child is older.

In regions like Tabora, there are claims that men abandon their wives for fear of being killed by their wives to inherit property. Similarly, in Kigoma, the phenomenon is known as Kuhanzura, where men abandon their families or neglect their responsibilities.

The report points to a direct relationship between family earnings and control of financial resources with abandonment.

For example, it was noted in areas where agriculture is the main source of income, while both husband and wife will stay together during planting season, after harvesting, the men will disappear with all the monies leaving the family in a desperate situation.

“Men usually return to their wives after spending all the family money, seeking forgiveness and claiming Satan caused them to abandon their family,” reads part of the report.

Local government leaders pointed out that harvest season is the time they receive the most complaints of family abandonment.

In curbing gender-based violence the report proposes the integration of gender education in learning curriculums from elementary to higher learning as well as the enactment of a specific and comprehensive law on gender-based violence.