Diversity Exchange, Issue 25, February 2012

Date: March 8, 2012

Diversity Exchange

Issue 25 | February 2012

Contents

Editor’s Note

by Saeanna Chingamuka
The major highlight for the month is International Women’s Day (IWD) that is celebrated annually on the 8th of March. The theme this year is “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures.” From April 23 to 25, Gender Links will hold the regional Third Gender Justice and Local Government Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The regional summit will be preceded by in-country summits in Mauritius, Zambia, Madagascar, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Regarding media work, the GMDC will host its advisory group meeting on 22 March 2012. The meeting will be convened via a teleconference. Documentation for the meeting will soon go out. Read more…


			GMDC News

Secrecy Bill: concerns still stands, anomalies arise

It is almost a month since public hearings on Protection of Information Bill started. However, news reportage on the matter indicates that the “masses” are still concerned with the nature of the bill and are calling for an addition of “public interest clause”. Media activists and experts argue that if signed in its current state form, the bill is subject to abuse by government authorities. Read more…

Zimpapers signs MOU with Gender Links

In a landmark development, the Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Gender Links (GL). This MOU is an indication of commitment and buy-in into the Centres of Excellence (COEs) for gender in the media project. Zimpapers group is the largest print media group in Zimbabwe with eleven publications. Read more…

Ugochi Anyaka wins UNEP Young Environmental Journalist Award

A radio journalist from Nigeria has won the United Nations Environment Programme’s Young Environmental Journalist Award (YEJA), beating over 120 entries from reporters across Africa. Ugochi Anyaka (28) received her award at a special ceremony held during the 12th Special Session of the UNEP Governing Council / Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. Read more…

Support Gabon widows’ call: release of plane crash report

Please let us support the Gabon widows’ call on the current Patriotic Front government to release the Report on the Gabon plane crash of 1993. Glove off to governments’ secrecy charade and enough is enough to the violation of the Zambian Enquiries Act over this long overdue report. Read more…

Top German female journalists want 30 percent of executive posts filled by women

Germany’s top female journalists have organized to demand media outlets introduce a quota system assuring that at least 30 percent of the executive positions in the media industry are filled by women. In a letter to 250 editors and publishers, hundreds of women journalists complained that only two percent of all editor-in-chiefs at Germany’s 360 daily and weekly newspapers are women Read more…

Rachel Mwanza wins best actress at Berlinale International Film Festival

The 14-year-old star of a Canadian film has won the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for her performance as a young African girl turned child soldier. Congolese actress Rachel Mwanza played 12-year-old Congolese girl, Komona, in Quebec director Kim Nguyen’s French-language drama War Witch Read more…


			Partner News

MMA Adresses Sunday Times’ Misreporting of Human Trafficking

The article on Sunday January 15th, 2012 “Woman tells of ordeal as drug-mule slave” refers. I would like to raise our concern about a crucial omission in the article, as well as highlight some additional ethical concerns. The story presents a powerful firsthand account of a woman’s experience at the hands of drug traffickers. Read more…

African Fathers Initiative newsletter

African Fathers Initiative aims to be a continent-wide institutional base for the generation, collection, and dissemination of knowledge and skills about responsible and involved fatherhood across all races and faiths in Africa. Read more…


			GL Opinion & Commentaries

IWD: The struggle for women’s empowerment continues

IWD is commemorated across many nations and women get an opportunity to share problems, discuss opportunities and generally feel good about the achievements they have made over the years. This year, the event is being celebrated under the theme, ââ‚¬Å“Empower Rural Women ââ‚¬” End Hunger and Poverty.ââ‚¬ IWD is a subject close to my heart because it is non-discriminatory. Hear me out ââ‚¬” we have Motherââ‚¬â„¢s Day that caters for all women with children. However, not every female is a mother but undoubtedly, every female is a woman. This day caters for all women ââ‚¬” young and old, poor and rich, literate and illiterate. This is one thing we can get straight as we start the new century of IWD. Read more…

IWD: The gender sensitive Indian

Traditional Indian homes can be breeding grounds for very gender insensitive values. Values such as, the husband is the only one that can make decisions and the wife is meant to be obedient and submissive; where the man goes out and earns the money while the women sits at home and looks after the kids. I grew up differently. I come from a liberal home, where mummy and daddy take decisions TOGETHER. My sister and I grew up on equal ground neither of us was limited because of our sex. Read more…

Swaziland: Women love male circumcision

Hygiene is something that I admire a lot in men: in particular, a circumcised male reproductive organ. As the circumcision program is rolled out in Swaziland, it is hoped that the number of HIV infections will decrease. Some men dispute how the removal of the foreskin prevents HIV transmission. Let this be a discussion for another day! My word is, modern women prefer circumcised organs as they make men clean and bring added pleasure to the relationship. Circumcision is now fashionable! Read more…


			Seminars

International Women’s Day: Towards a 50/50 campaign in SA – 8 March 2012

The issue of 50/50 has recently received renewed interest, with Adv Tlakula of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) speaking out on the need for a legislated quota system to effect parity in women’s participation. The Women’s Ministry, in its green paper discussions framing the development of a Gender Equality Bill, has also identified the issue. Read more…

Do women have the right to wear mini-skirts and trousers in Malawi?

This concept note concerns a seminar that the Gender and Media Diversity Centre (GMDC) of Gender Links (GL) in partnership with Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ) will host aimed at discussing gender matters regarding freedom of dressing and culture in Malawi. Read more…


			Upcoming Events

International Women’s Day, 8 March 2012


			GMDC Databases

Clippings

Lesbian’s killers get 18-year sentences – Sowetan

Monica Madindi wept uncontrollably when the men who killed her lesbian daughter six years ago were sentenced in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Her daughter Zoliswa Nkonyana was gang-raped and then murdered in February 2006. Madindi could not speak after magistrate Raadiyah Wathen sentenced Lubabalo Ntlabathi, sabelo Mase, Luyanda Lodzi and Mbulelo Damba to 18 years in jail each. Four years of the 18 sentences were suspended to five years. Her husband, Gladstone Mandindi, said: “We are not entirely happy but a sentence is a sentence.” The four were found guilty of murdering Nkonyana in October. They have 14 days to appeal the sentence. Read more…

Frocking hell! So many boobs – City Press

If members of Parliament are desperate to pass something into a law, they should chuck the Protection of Information Bill in the bin and start drafting the MPs’ Crime Against Fashion Bill. The atrocities disguised as fashion at the opening of parliament on Thursday and defied belief. Granted politicians have never been known to intuitively gravitate towards trends. Read more…

Girl attacked after cyberbully ordeal: teen, 15, taunted on Facebook and BBM

First they called her fat and threw diet pills at her. Then they took to Facebook and blackberry’s BBM chat service with a series of threats, name calling and nasty comments. And when that wasn’t enough, the four Krugersdorp High schoolgirls marched up to the 15 year old pupils and hit her over the head with glass juice bottle. The attack during the first interval of the school on January 30 was filmed. The video was recorded by another pupil, who had allegedly been asked the attacker to film the confrontation. In it, the attacker, wearing a pink headband, is seen walking across the school field, playing with the bottle. Read more…

Research

Participatory Radio and the Public Sphere – The Case of Climate Change Communication in Malawi

Despite its impact on peopleââ‚¬Ëœs livelihood in Malawi, climate change communication has not been prioritised. Resources for climate change communication are directed towards improving the capacity of journalists and the media houses. As a result, the communication process remains top-down with the public being recipients of information. This has led to Community Based Initiatives failure because there is no or less strategic investment in effective communication (climate change media partnership). Read more…

Gender, Choice and Migration: Household Dynamics and Urbanisation in Mozambique

Very little empirical research has been done on migration in Mozambique and the existing material emphasizes labour migration. Migrants are an essential component of international, regional and national economies and a significant channel of the flow of labour. However, there are scholars who have conventionally perceived migration as a negative with respect to its relationship with development, rapid urbanisation; its resulting consequences and their impact upon the household structure. While it is true cities perhaps offer more advantages – better economic conditions and amenities – in reality they become a detriment reducing theirs group’s capacity to maintain a level of satisfaction. Read more…

FEMINIST LEGAL APPROACHES TO ADULT PROSTITUTION

Prostitution and the sex industry are topics that involve a complex range of issues. In the international arena they have resulted in a range of regulatory responses. In South Africa, the Law Reform Commission is looking at law reform measures best suited to the unique South African context. South Africa has a strong constitutional jurisprudence that protects the right to equality. However, there are also high levels of unemployment as well as the prevalence of HIV/AIDS which results in the disproportionate effect of inequalities on women. The objective of this seminar is to engage with the issues and discuss various approaches to prostitution adopted by other jurisdictions and how they might apply in SA. This is the first of two workshops which will deal with the theoretical underpinnings of feminist legal approaches to adult prostitution. The second workshop will focus on more contextual issues. Read more…

Case Studies

When gold turns to dust: the story of teenage girl forced into sex slavery

After drug trafficking, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms trade as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and it is the fastest growing. Due to poverty, many people across the globe are coaxed by scrupulous agents who promise them better jobs elsewhere. Europe and the US are well known major destinations for trafficked people. Upon reaching these “promised lands”, these youngsters are forced into sex slavery. This media highlight analyses an article published in the Star Newspaper about teenage girls who were trafficked to Turkey and steered into prostitution. Read more…

“Re-usable sanitary wear on the cards”

Poverty just like many other societal issues disproportionally affect women and girls compared to their male counterparts. Lack of basic women needs such as sanitary wear denies women and girls an opportunity to take part in socio-economic and developmental activities that would ultimately empower them. This media highlight analyses a Zimbabwean newspaper article that reported on re-usable sanitary wear that have been developed for economically “disadvantaged” women and girls. Read more…

Thematic media highlight: Fikile Mbalula and the sex scandal

When a person occupies a public office his/her private life literally ceases. Whatever little or big, good or bad, scandalous or reputable thing s/he does is always of public interest. This is the case with Fikile Mabalula, South Africa’s Sports and Recreation Minister whose sex encounter with Joyce Malamu, a North West based businessperson and model attracted a lot South Africa’s media attention. This thematic media highlight analyses some of the media articles that reported on this “scandalous” development. Read more…

Publications

Gender and Multiple and Concurrent Sexual Partnerships in Lesotho

HIV continues to be one of the most urgent development issues confronting southern Africa including Lesotho. With an HIV prevalence rate of 23% in its adult population aged 15-49 years, Lesotho is the third hardest hit country in the world by the HIV epidemic. In 2000, His Majesty the King Letsie III and the government declared HIV a national disaster. Despite on-going efforts to reduce the impact of the epidemic, there is still no clear indication that HIV incidence is declining. As a step to halt the epidemic in the region, the Southern African Development Community held an expert think tank meeting in Maseru, in May 2006. One of the meeting’s main conclusions was that multiple concurrent sexual partners is one of the key drivers of the epidemic in the Southern African region. Read more…

Transforming Capitalism and Patriarchy: Gender and Development in Africa

Using insights from feminist theory and political economy, Gordon examines the implications for women of current economic and political reform efforts in Africa. Much of the work on women in Africa argues that patriarchy and capitalism have collaborated in the exploitation and control of women to support dependent capitalist development; therefore, both are antithetical to the interests of women. Dependent capitalist development, however, has been a failure. And now, Gordon contends, the interests of patriarchy-in its current form in Africa-and capitalism no longer coincide. Read more…

INTEGRATING MULTIPLE PEPFAR GENDER STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE HIV INTERVENTIONS

Recognizing that HIV risk is shaped by a complex web of social, economic, and legal factors that affect women, men, girls, and boys differently, many in the development community have long been calling for the integration of gender-specific1 strategies to combat the spread of HIV (Gupta 2000; Gupta et al. 2008). The merit of this approach is supported by recent research demonstrating that HIV programs that integrate multiple PEPFAR gender strategies can be particularly effective in helping women protect themselves against HIV and reducing the frequency of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV; Pronyk et al. 2008). The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is committed to integrating a gender perspective into its prevention, care, and treatment programs. Read more…


			Internships				Members

Ruben Covane: Thinking big for Mozambican women

Ruben Roberto De Palnira Covane is only 23 but his vision is to see all Mozambican women enjoy their many rights. Covane, an intern at Gender Links’ (GL) Mozambique office thinks the media has a big role to play on gender equality. Read more…

Members

Harare Polytechnic starts process

The Harare Polytechnic based in Harare, Zimbabwe has been working with the GMDC since 2009. The Harare Polytechnic became part of the institutions that were targeted for the Gender in Media Education (GIME) research. Read more…

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Diversity Exchange, Issue 25, February 2012

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