HONIARA streets was graced by parading women who marched down town like an army to celebrate the International Women’s Day, but Rose Mary Nunua made the bravest public march of them all.
Forty -Five-year-old Ms Nunua from Lau, Malaita, braved the odds, setting precedence by appearing publicly with bruises and a bloated and unrecognisable face to tell the world of the beatings she’d endured in the hands of an abusive husband.
This came as Madame Grace Kabui told the gathering yesterday women around and world and here continue to suffer abuse and discrimination.
Ms Nunua’s latest beating by her husband, who is also from north Malaita, occured early on Saturday morning.
“It was a domestic row two weeks ago that my husband finally ended on Saturday morning when he arrived at home drunk,” she told the Solomon Star.
“Food that I prepared was not enough for my five kids who also brought their friends to join.
“My husband returned and started beating me up when my children ate up the pudding with their friends.
“My brothers intercepted and the row ended up between my brothers and husband,” she said.
Ms Nunua, who stayed at Kaibia, said she thought the matter was over until early Saturday morning when she was woken up by heavy hand blows from her husband.
“He thrust his leg into my stomach when I was asleep and before I got up, I received heavy hand blows. He hit me repeatedly on the face so I passed out immediately.
“I don’t know if he continued to beat me up then but I was very lucky to survive because no-one neither my children witnessed the incident.
“He shoved me into the back of the car he was driving and took me around that night without me knowing it because when I regain consciousness, I was still at the back of the car in the Ranadi area at about 4am,” she recalled.
Ms Nunua said when she got up; she could hardly open her eyes but beg her husband to take her home to see her kids and got her face dressed up quickly.
“My children were shocked when I arrived.”
She said it was not the first time she was beaten by her husband as she showed healed knife wounds around her neck and legs.
“There were times before when he would hold me up and tortured me with a knife.
Ms Nunua’s bravery in approaching the media to reveal the nasty incident was not easy, thanks to the managing director of Tavanipupu Resort Pamela Kimberly who wants to ensure she gets justice and public condemnation of such treatment on women.
Ms Kimberly said she came across Ms Nunua scouring rubbish drum at the Central Market some years back.
“I recruited her then and she is still work for me – a very hard and faithful worker.”
Asked if she would go public and approach police with the incident by herself, Ms Nunua said “no” with a grin on her bloated face.
“I wouldn’t reveal anything without the support of Ms Kimberly.”
Ms Kimberly said it’s time local women speak up if they are treated that way.
“She could have been dead as she helplessly laid there for hours, but now that she luckily made it, we must publicly condemn this sort of treatment.
“Enough is enough.”
She took the battered woman to the Central Police station to report the matter to police yesterday.
Ms Nunua set precedence for women to follow, that they deserve fair treatment from their partners or face justice.
Culture has been the common factor that normally stops women from going public and reporting such treatments to police.
By EDNAL PALMER
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