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Your support makes all the difference.When Loice asked the villagers why they had tied a bell around the girl’s leg, she was told the 12-year-old had just started her period. The ring was a reminder to men in the remote community in South Sudan that the child was “ready for marriage”.
The women’s rights activist turned radio host recalls that haunting memory and countless others she has encountered in her work while speaking to the audience of Peace of Her Mind.
The weekly talk show is South Sudan’s first female-run radio programme and it tackles some of the toughest and most grim issues women face in the world’s youngest country, including child brides.
Set up last summer, in conjunction with Oxfam International, it airs on South Sudan’s Eye Radio, which broadcasts across the country.
“The radio is changing people’s minds. People are listening to the show and learning,” Ms Kiden tells The Independent from her office in Juba, where the show is based.
“Most of the women suffering from gender-based violence are located in the remote areas of the country. They don’t know they are even allowed to talk, that they can say no. It’s hard to get access to the areas but radio can often get there,” she adds.
The South Sudanese rights advocate grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda after fleeing South Sudan in 1995 during the country’s 20-year bloody war for independence with the north.
She was inspired by her mother, who fetched water to make money to keep her children fed and clothed. And so on returning to South Sudan in the early 2000s, Ms Kiden dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights, including helping set up the radio show.
Gender-based violence is an increasing problem in South Sudan, which plunged back into civil war in 2013, after gaining independence from the north in 2011.
The UN has said rape was used as a weapon of war in the five-year conflict, which nominally ended in the autumn with a peace deal signed between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebels.
Women have been among the most affected by the violence. According to Unicef, 65 per cent of women and girls have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, and approximately 51 per cent have suffered domestic violence.
Meanwhile, poverty, violence and hunger are driving a spike in child marriages as families are increasingly forced to promise their young daughters to grooms in exchange for food and cattle dowries or protection.
Although official statistics are not available, in areas like Nyal, in the north, Oxfam said new data it has gathered showed as much as 71 per cent of all girls were married underage, making it the second highest rate in the world after Niger.
Women are traditionally expected to be the breadwinners, responsible for securing food and water for the family as well as being the chief parent and housekeeper, Ms Kiden explained.
But at the same time, they are rarely given the opportunity to express themselves, are often not permitted to go to school and do not realise what their rights are, she added.
This is at the heart of Peace of her Mind, which does not pull any punches with its subject matter.
So far, they have tackled everything from child marriage and the dangers of early childbirth to domestic violence and rape.
The pilot was first aired last summer and the show started broadcasting every Friday in the autumn. It reaches communities from the south to the north of the country.
Its main host is veteran South Sudanese reporter Hellen Samuel known as “Mama Hellen” who said it was an important platform for women to learn their basic rights and open a conversation about taboo subjects.
Ms Kiden said the all-female team were surprised when at the launch of the show most of the callers were men.
“I had one male caller defending child marriage. He was saying that by the time a woman was 20 she was too old and no one would marry her,” Ms Kiden explains.
“I always lead by example and so used myself as one,” she adds.
Ms Kiden told the man she was 30, unmarried, and armed with a university degree that allowed her to secure a decent living to properly support her family. She said she was not worried about finding a husband.
“I said that letting a girl be educated would be double the profit,” she jokes: “This lady would be able to buy him many more cows through working.”
Another male caller argued child marriage was important as it helped South Sudan increase its population.
“I told them there are a lot of cases of women dying in childbirth because their bodies were not prepared to give birth,” she recalls.
Slowly the team have noticed a change in attitudes of those calling into the show.
Rhea Catada, who works for Oxfam in South Sudan, says that radio is an important medium in South Sudan, where literacy rates are very low.
According to the UN’s latest statistics, 80 per cent of women in South Sudan cannot read or write, while 70 per cent of men are illiterate.
“Radio is very influential, and the show is sparking important debates,” she tells The Independent.
“It’s also important that this show is independent,” she adds.
In the studio there is a sign reminding radios hosts not to play the political anthems of either the regime or the opposition. The team are not affiliated with any political group.
Radio is very influential, and the show is sparking important debates
Ms Kiden says the show, giving women a voice, came at a crucial time.
The government promised in the peace deal to ensure that 35 per cent of the country’s executive positions were filled by women – but that has yet to happen.
“Women are behind everything in South Sudan and are the most affected by the conflict,” Ms Kiden says.
“It is important for their voice to be heard so that lawmakers, officials, leaders can know the full impact of the conflict on our country and so how to put it back together again.”
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