First Lady Monica Geingos said she is disappointed by gendered insults which dominated a parliamentary session on Thursday. This follows insults hurled in the National Assembly during an exchange of words between Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi, his deputy Henny Seibeb and Defence Deputy Minister Hilma Nicanor. Among the words hurled towards Nicanor were; “infertile barren witch”, “you were born stupid”, “you are an empty head, even her children are maybe like that”, “I don’t want you, I am married”, “you are insignificant”, “you are a witch”, “you bewitched me”, “No man wants you - I have lots of old men I can give you”. Geingos who took to her Twitter page, said the gendered attacks were not only demeaning and dehumanising, but are also intended to shame women into obedience and to remind them that they are nothing. “The Presiding Officer needs to stop this. Society needs to stop this. Bystanders need to stop being silent. This is not normal,” she said adding that dehumanisation of women leads to emotional, financial, and physical abuse, sexual harassment, rape and murder. It all starts with disrespect and objectification. These things are connected. These things will not stop if we don’t all say enough is enough,” she said. The exchange of words between the MPs which Nampa also witnessed started when Nicanor asked Deputy Speaker Loide Kasingo to call disruptive MPs to order and to tell LPM MPs to withdraw their statement that “jy is dom gebore en niks bygeleer nie”. Seibeb and Swarbooi later told Nampa that Nicanor instigated the whole incident when she called them stupid and that Swartbooi failed during his time as governor of the ||Kharas Region. “You achieved zero…you’re a failure. I can prove it,” Nicanor told Swartbooi. She also accused the LPM leaders of failing to provide leadership and direction for the ||Kharas Regional Council where they are the ruling party. This they said prompted their response as they were frustrated and tired of Swapo MPs insulting them and instigating commotion which according to Seibeb is always blamed on the two of them. Deputy Speaker Kasingo - who presided over the House at the time, refused to comment on the scuffle saying it is disappointing and that Parliament has been degenerating into chaos throughout the week.