Executive Member of FIDA-Ghana, Irene Aborchie-Nyahe says the Ministry of Gender cannot brag about protecting rights of women in the country if it fails to attend to a widow of Abam, in the Eastern region.

Irene has called on the Gender Minister to stop the chief of the area from carrying out his threat of banishing the lady from the town.

On March 7, Joy News reported the story of a widow in Abam in the Eastern region who is to face banishment on Tuesday, March 8 for refusing to obey the prescription of the chief of the area to undergo widowhood rites following the death of her husband.

She said the Gender Ministry cannot "pride itself for promoting and encouraging the rights of women" on international platforms and entertain the maltreatment of women in the country.

Irene asserted the Ministry has a lot to lose if it fails to demonstrate to the world that dehumanizing practices such as the widowhood rites that the lady is resisting, do not deserve a place in Ghana.

“I am even shocked that after this democratic dispensation, there will be a town that is still promoting and encouraging banishment where you will be humiliated publicly and driven out of the town,” she said.

According to her, the banishment the woman faces is a demonstration of domestic and gender violence women suffer repeatedly in the country.

This story comes as Ghana joins the world to mark the International Women’s Day Tuesday, March 8 – a day set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world.