While many fear animals, fire, water, or the dark, one unique fear has jolted the world. Nzamwita Callitxe, a 71-year-old man from Rwanda, has supposedly drifted away from the society for the last 55 years due to an intense, irrational fear of women. The isolation began at age 16, when he locked himself inside and set up a 15-foot barricade to keep all females away.
Nzamwita, in one of the few interviews he’s ever given, explained: “The reason I locked myself inside here and have a fence on my house is because I want to make sure that women will not come closer to me.” In his words, being near females frightens him, and it fills him with anxiety.
Despite that from his perspective, the local women-neighbors, in particular-have helped him survive for several decades. One neighbor was quoted as saying that she has hardly seen him leave his compound since childhood. The community buys rescuing goods and food, which they then throw over his fence, as he refuses to accept any direct contact.
If it happens that any woman disrespects whatever boundary that was in front of his compound, really he is said to run indoors and lock himself. Psychiatrists suspect that Nzamwita may be suffering from gynophobia, an irrational fear of women. It is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), but in clinical terminology, it is considered to be a 1990 “specific phobia”.
Symptoms of gynophobia include an overwhelming sensation of anxiety, panic attacks, trouble breathing, chest tightening, intense sweating, and rapid heartbeat—some of these symptoms have even been known to appear when afflicted are simply thinking about women.
