Cutlass
REPORTS ABOUT husbands suddenly turning misogynistic and murdering their wives have risen in recent times. Such crimes are becoming so common that if something is not done to save women from suffering the bloody umbrage of their spouses, stories in that direction may cease making the front pages of newspapers.
When anomalies become so common as such crimes are becoming, they no longer attract attention and therefore unworthy of prominence. We pray we do not get to that stage anyway.
The statistics of the crime this year alone is racing towards a dozen and perhaps still
counting and we are nowhere near the end of 2013. Women have for far too long been reduced to punching bags by economically stressed husbands.
Signs of failed marriages are not too difficult to discern. That is the reason why in some cases, divorce is a better option than allowing distressed women to continue to stay in challenging marital unions hoping that things could change for the better at great risks to their lives.
We have observed with regret how family members ignore the suffering of their relations
who are brutalized by their husbands in marriages which, without doubt, are failed unions.
Marriages are supposed to be lifelong unions between consenting couples but sometimes in the course of the marital relationships, disagreements do occur. While some of these disagreements can be managed and even mended when temporary breaks occur, others are simply cases of incompatibility. When such incompatibilities are detected, it would be in the interest of the couple to go their ways rather than wait for such bloody aftermaths.
Pre-marital counselling is very necessary, as such sessions of admonitions have the potential
of priming couples for the lifelong unions. Unfortunately, the advantages of such sessions are taken for granted and largely ignored.
It is our take however, that if the churches, mosques parents and traditionalists all take the issue of marriages very seriously and monitor at least the first year of the union, danger signs when they are occurring, could be detected and the necessary remedial action taken.
We are by this editorial not encouraging divorce in marriages especially since such severances are despised by the great religions of Islam and Christianity.
Although as much as possible all efforts must be made to ensure the longevity of marriages when very dangerous signs begin to show up, the last resort is preferable to murder.
We entreat the Police to speed up investigations into cases of spousal murders so that the courts can deal with them expeditiously.
