The outgoing Minister for Gender and Children Affairs, Otiko Afisa Djaba, has said that men suffering domestic violence must gather courage and report to the police.
She said men have to express their emotions more often especially in cases of abuse.
She said men at a younger stage are taught not to express their emotions, to “suck it up” and “be a man’’ which has led to their silence when their wives beat them up.
‘’We have received a lot of calls in recent times from men who are abused by women. In our culture, it’s not manly enough to say your wife has beaten you up. So what I know is that it is happening but they don’t complain because they don’t want them to be seen as weak’’, she said.
Otiko made these statements to the Appointments Committee of Parliament which is expected to be her last before she jets off to Italy to take her new role as Ghanaian Ambassador there.
According to her, the rate at which women beat their husbands is alarming as some male victims could call her as late as 1 am to report cases of abuse by their wives.
‘’We intend to do an assessment and survey because I get personal letters from these men. Some of them even call me at 1 am. There was an incident about a woman using a stool to hit a man’s head, I asked the social welfare worker to take up the issue and we are currently working on it”, she added.
