A total of 1,300 girls in Ghana were defiled in 2014 while the recorded cases of rape increased from 290 in 2012 to 342 in 2014, the West African nation’s Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit said on Monday.
According to the Body, 19 percent of Ghanaian women aged 15-49 has experienced sexual violence.
Defilement also continues to be on the rise, accounting for around 66 percent of all sexual offences, the organization reported.
Ghana has recently intensified the combat against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) as well as elimination of all forms of violence against women and children.
The country has been ranked very high in numerous surveys of gender-based violence around the world. One reason is that many Ghanaians believe husbands have justifiable reasons for beating their wives.
These women are caught between modern cultures that propagate equal rights for men and women and traditional Ghanaian beliefs based on male dominance. The Ghanaian police say less than 20 percent of women in northern Ghana report abuses in their marital homes.
Traditions in most parts of rural Ghana dictate that a woman cannot, under any circumstances, leave the home of her husband. Most families would rather send the woman back to her husband if she comes to them with complaints.