DIVORCED women face a nightmare of abuse from their ex-husbands and institutional discrimination in Cyprus, the House Human Rights Committee heard yesterday.
The recently-formed Pancyprian Divorced Women’s Association, which so far has more than 1,000 members, spelled out a catalogue of misery before the committee, with its president, Loulla Savvidou, saying the situation had come to a head and parliament was their final hope.
“It is the mother who is left to raise the children. And after they have divorced they feel they are all alone in the world. She feels ostracised from Cypriot society. Yet it is a woman’s human right to divorce.”
Firing serious accusations, Savvidou spoke of the indifference of police in serious cases such as domestic abuse and the forgery of signatures, and said that this behaviour was tolerated by the Attorney-general.
In cases of domestic violence, she accused police accused, not only of being inactive, but of insinuating women were to blame for the incidents.
“We have had women come to us and say that they had heard police saying ‘I’d like to see how many boyfriends she had behind her husband’s back for him to hit her’.
“This is unacceptable. If we can’t go to the police, where can we go?”
Savvidou also said the law was turning a blind eye to men forging their wives’ signatures. Women had lost properties that their parents had built for them after husbands forged their signatures and sold them for their personal gain, she claimed.
“The homes our parents worked hard for are lost when speculators forge our signatures and sign our properties over to themselves.”
Savvidou told the Committee that signature forgery could legally be punished with up to 14 years’ imprisonment. But if it was done by a spouse who has Power of Attorney, then it was not considered punishable.
“There is a loophole in the legislation. We give our husbands Power of Attorney because of who they are and because we are caught up in the moment. That doesn’t give them the right, however, to forge our signature.”
And the police do absolutely nothing about it, she claimed. “It is unheard of that I can’t go and report my husband for forging my signature. The police’s response? ‘Go home lady, do you know how many women like you come here every day?’ And it is the Attorney-general who has instructed the police to act like that,” accused Savvidou.
The accusation especially concerned Green Party leader George Perdikis. “I want specifications on these statements on how police handle the matter of signature forgery by spouses,” he told the Committee.
The United Democrats’ Androulla Vassiliou also stressed the need for an investigation into the matter.
And AKEL MP Eleni Mavrou suggested that during the next related House meeting, the Attorney-general and Social Security Department should be present. “We need to ask whether signature forgery is a criminal offence when it happens within the family.”
Giving ex-husbands Power of Attorney, many women left themselves vulnerable and in debt following their divorce, explained the association head.
“We are fooled into giving them Power of Attorney under false pretences. And then they go and sign for our wages and they are given them without question. We go to court, ask why they accepted his signature and they present us with the Power of Attorney.”
But Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou warned that women were largely to blame for such developments. “We need to escape this traditional role women have, that we are dependent on our husbands. Women need to discover their individuality. We need to become active. So if he wants to be given Power of Attorney, we should say no.”
But even without signing anything away, too many divorced women were struggling to make ends meet because ex-husbands were failing to pay their child support, the Committee heard.
“We will not become beggars in order to raise his kids. Divorced mothers need that money for the children. There are private lessons to pay for, clothes and other essentials that one salary simply cannot handle.”
So she suggested to Parliament that it enact legislation that would make the State responsible for collecting child support. “We are suggesting that child support be deducted from wages, like social security is. You will see how the government will ensure the money has been paid.”
WIDOW’S PENSIONS
OMBUDSWOMAN Eliana Nicolaou told the House Human Rights Committee yesterday that, according to current legislation, for a woman to receive widow’s pension, she had to be living with her husband at the time of his death. If they are separated or divorced, then she is not entitled to it. She also needs to have been financially dependent on her deceased husband.
“If a man has walked out on his wife, and at the time of his death she was not with him, even if they were married for 30 years, then she is not entitled to a widow’s pension. I have made suggestions on the matter but they were ignored.”
Divorced Women’s Association head Loulla Savvidou added that if a man had married twice, then it was his second wife who was entitled to the pension, regardless of how long each had been married to him.
“If a woman has been married to a man for 60 years and then he divorces her for a young foreign woman, which is often the case in Cyprus, then he dies three months later, the widow’s pension will go to his second wife. This is unacceptable.”
But the Ombudswoman also mentioned that the injustice was not always at the woman’s expense. “Only women are entitled to widow’s pensions”, she said.
THE CHILDREN
CHILDREN who come from broken families are stigmatised in society, Divorced Women’s Association head Loulla Savvidou said in Parliament yesterday.
“These children have psychological problems which aren’t recognised by society. We need a special programme within schools on the matter. These children are stigmatised at school as problematic.”
House Human Rights Committee head Sophoclis Fyttis of DIKO considered the damage caused to children’s psychological state the most serious aspect of divorce. “The psychological problems these children face is for me the most serious issue. The children who turn to drugs are those that come from broken families”.
But Green Party leader George Perdikis disagreed, saying that a study had shown that the most problematic children were not necessarily those with divorced parents.
And Androulla Vassiliou of the United Democrats wondered why there were only 31 school psychologists on the entire island and suggested that the committee looks into the issue.
