Baby Snatcher Jailed

This article may be used to highlight that:

• Cultural expectations, myths, stereotypes and stigma have often placed women under immense pressure to the point of driving them to blind desperation.
• In typical African culture there are some age-old realities that most women find themselves pitted and measured against.
• Media’s lost opportunities to challenge gender stereotypes

Trainer’s notes:
Articles in The Herald (Zimbabwe), “Baby Snatcher Jailed” and “Bid to Please Hubby Backfires” in the months of September and October present the world with a story of a women who was sentenced to jail following admitting kidnapping her old friend’s child. The headline, “Bid to Please Hubby Backfires” seems to miss the point of the story, as well as perpetuate   gender stereotypes that women are weak and can not live without a men. This is seen within the story as we read down; there is no line that mentions the women saying she “stole” the baby in order to get back her estranged husband. Instead, the second article “Baby Snatcher Jailed” is the one that refers to her motivation when it is said that: “In mitigation, Muchena said she just wanted to have a baby to look after following a number of miscarriages that led to her husband leaving her.”

It is clear that the traditional norms in her society together with the media in Zimbabwe did not take any heed of the desperation this woman must have been feeling. The title “Bay snatcher Jailed” seems to diminish the stress this woman must have been under. As much as one acknowledges that the women was wrong to steal a baby, the fact that the media and society in Zimbabwe seem to ignore the agony and stress the women has gone through owing to culture, points out that to addressing not just the symptoms but the root cause would have been a smart move by both the media and her intimate community.

The third article published by the GL Opinion and Commentary Service called “Desparate for motherhood at any cost” paints a different picture “Imagine the stigma the poor woman must have been going through before plunging to such depths of stealing another’s child? Fingers must have been pointed and tongues wagging at the “woman whose husband left her because she couldn’t bear him a child.” Sympathy, pity, accusations, ridicule, disappointment, mockery must have come at her from various corners in her existence. How it must have been for her to walk in those shoes. In this way one can argue that she cannot be the only one and the only thing at fault.”

This brings us to pinpointing that culture can be the only sole perpetrator in this case. The GL article also mentions that it is a known fact that in typical African culture there are some age-old realities that most women find themselves pitted and measured against. This includes; nine months or so after lobola has been paid women are expected to give birth to a child, preferably a boy if not a single child anguish will follow. In the event of childlessness, women are the cause of it. It must also be noted that chances are low that the “fault” be placed at the husband’s thereby showing gender disparities marauding within African communities.

These articles presented here are an example that society still holds gender stereotypes that women are child bearing “machines” and it is very unfortunate that the media seems to be a driving vehicle of such notions within our society. Schools of thought that place women at fault when there is no child in the marriage; that treat women as child bearing “machines” distort the ideals of marriage as it is known these days. Surely, emotional support, companionship, and love before whatever it is cannot rest in the womb to reproduce.

Discussion questions:

• Discuss any cultural expectations, myths, stereotypes and stigma that you know with your group
• Do you think some of those cultural expectations put a strain on women? Would you want to mention some of them?
• Share with your group your thoughts on marriage. Do you think bearing offspring’s is the sole purpose of getting married? Could there be any sole purpose of getting married?
• Do you think the media and the Zimbabwean government should have considered the cultural dimensions of this matter before prosecuting and writing these articles about the woman?
• Could there be many women out there who are facing a similar situation as the woman that stole the baby? What do you think is the solution?

Training exercises:
Exercise one: Put together news articles that report on women’s sufferings due to cultural norms. Identify those cultural issues and write a one page summery on your findings. Also include your thoughts whether you support or against any of those issue ( that can stretch to the second page)

Exercise two: Conduct a voxpop around your area where you ask people to express their views whether women are bound to have children in marriage and whether inability to bear children means the end of the marriage. Mix both old and youth’s views paying attention to gender balance. Write a report out of your findings to discuss with your group.

Download : 10187_baby_snatcher_jailed.doc
Download : 10255_bid_to_please_hubby_backfires.doc