Corruption-Violence Against Women in Zambia and Lesotho Correctional Facilities of Abettors and Heroines

This paper examined corruption violence against women in Zambia and Lesotho by highlighting how they mitigate its effects without being acknowledged as abettors and heroines of it. Of particular concern is the existence of corruption violence against women through mental and physical abuse, trauma and incarceration. This is depicted in the day to day conversations and female punishment and arrests by the state prosecutors and prison warders in Zambia and Lesotho. The women persecution has nothing to do with the level of education or professional training of the prosecutor or prison warders but the political patronage of the prosecutor. Nevertheless, corruption-violence of any form against women is not only a violation of the constitutional rights in the context of Zambia and Lesotho but also a denial of dignity, liberty and equality enshrined in the global Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. Sandra Bartky’s “discursive patriarchal power” provided the theoretical framework guiding this article. In agreement with Bartky’s patriarchal power which coerces women to adhere to oppressive norms of femininity, perpetuates-corruption-violence on women has material effects on their bodies and therefore, forces them to modify their behavior to abettors. This infers that the body of women becomes a site of struggle, and often resistance, for both femininity and intimate partner. Methodologically, this article is based on library research though the large part of it involves interviews with those perceived as heroines and abettors of corruption-violence and how they negotiate it and suffer internal trauma and sexually abused silently. The paper throws some light on facets of restorative justice so that justice does not only apply to the victim only but the perpetrator too in order to promote human rights for all affected by corruption-violence.