7.2.4.1 Nofotane Violence Case Study 18: Lote’s mother-in-law After they got married Lote moved in with her husband and his family and had high expectations. She used to enjoy living with her family where she felt free and there was no stress. She looked forward to the same. But everything changed. From the start, Lote’s mother-in-law made her life hell making her wake up at 5am to cook breakfast for everyone before they woke, cleaning up afterwards, and then going to the plantation for wood and taro before coming home to do the daily chores. By the time her husband came home every day she was almost too tired to tell him how her day had been. But more than the hard physical work she was required to do was the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother-in-law. “The way I was treated by the mother-in-law was evil. I preferred being beaten than the words that were thrown at me. They were mean and demeaning and made me feel worthless. She said to me the reason you came to this family was to cook for us, to do everything for us, to burn your eyes. That is your role as a nofotane. One day I did my normal chores and when I came back all my pots were outside as she had thrown them out. She was calling out that when I got there she was going to stab me with a crow bar. On another occasion my husband was angry because I had cooked a dish for the church minister and it was not good so he took off. I was trying to stir the pot for the family and felt a bang on the back of my head and the mother-in-law had come and hit me with a stick.” *Names changed to protect the identities of those involved. The role of nofotane has been taken by some to an extent to be a menial one within the family, creating a hierarchy of power that is sometimes maintained through physical violence and verbal abuse, as was the case for Lote. The treatment of such women as nofotane as inferiors is as a breach of the human rights through the violence they have to endure. This is also discrimination on their status as in-laws and a breach of their right not to be subject to degrading treatment.36 Further, it undermines principles of the Fa’asamoa that of mutual respect (feāvaa’i) and mutual protection (fepuipuia’i). Moreover, the Fa’asamoa principle of fa’asinomaga determines that every person has roots within a family, a village and an important role to play in society. Through this sense of belonging, a sense of responsibility is created which should play a preventive role in relation to perpetrating all forms of violence. The way nofotane are now regularly treated is a breach of Fa’asamoa 36 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Articles 1- 5.