Violence within the family is a matter of power and lack of accountability. Women know that being beaten is wrong but they need somewhere to go for support and for the law to be enforced. The FRU will fulfill that function.

Traditional thinking dictates that most women, children and other vulnerable groups within the family accept physical and emotional violence as a normal part of life. It is not normal. It is a matter of power and a lack of accountability. This Family Response Unit should become a symbol of hope in the community.

This is a fight over power, prestige and patronage. Violence has broken out when the legal outcome is unclear, which it is now.

“See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence.”

When you talk about building political power, you can't just talk about violence in the narrow sense of the word. You have to have a sense of spectacle and theater.

The violence betwen women is unbelievable. Women try to make each other crawl so that their knees are bleeding.