Customary Wives in Fight against Marital Abuse
Elena Moore, in the Mail & Guardian, describes the ways in which customary wives in South Africa, in challenging marital violence, navigate relations of patriarchal domination either through appeals to the state, familial channels or a combination of both. Based on a forthcoming article in Violence Against Women, the article describes how women during family meetings draw upon the state to challenge patriarchy within intimate partnerships and reassert control within their marriages. However, by drawing on the state for support, women have to navigate the patriarchal domination at the macro level as the state continues to act as an oppressive entity, particularly as they continue to constrain women’s access to justice. See article