Gender equality

Amisse é um jovem de 32 anos, casado hÁ¡ nove anos. Conheci-o em Nampula, onde encontrava-me a moderar uma palestra sobre masculinidade e violência. A sala estava repleta de homens e mulheres, na sua maioria jovens estudantes. O debate começou com os jovens a relatarem as experiências relacionadas com a masculinidade e violência que ocorrem em Nampula de forma geral.

Porém, Amisse quebrou essa tendência falando especificamente da sua própria experiência. Primeiro contou aos presentes que era um telespectador assÁ­duo do programa “Homem que é HomemÀ, um programa transmitido pela Televisão de Moçambique abordando vÁ¡rias questÁµes sobre género, masculinidade e a sua relação com a violência numa abordagem de homem para homem.

The 50/50 campaign in decision making by 2015 articulated in the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development has brought mixed feelings, views and opinions regarding women’s empowerment. For some quarters the campaign has brought with it the renewed hope that could improve women’s empowerment, but others feel that it is “politically incorrectÀ to go the route of empowerment through legislation. They feel that deliberate policies to attain a certain target reinforce the superiority of men over women. This case study discusses a letter to the Editor by a “female chauvinistÀ who is of the view that the 50/50 campaign makes women “second class citizens yet they are intelligent enough to make it on their own.

A few weeks ago, I attended a friend’s birthday party. As is the unwritten rule of Malawian get-together-parties or gatherings of any sort patronised by both sexes, the men sat in a circle with a table of booze in the centre. They made sure that they were well away from where the women huddled together, watching the children, gossiping and sharing experiences.
Not surprisingly, the topic soon took a turn into what I have come to discover is someone’s idea of a hideous joke on womankind; bridal showers. Questions were thrown around; are they essential? Do they serve to empower or disempower brides to be? Why do speakers at bridal showers often give advice that they themselves never follow?

I will call my first experience as a female editor for a weekly newspaper a baptism by fire. Imagine a woman on the other side of the phone raging. As her tirade against me escalated she did not allow me to get even one word in to respond to the accusations. She kept screaming at me.
“This is the trouble with women who get appointed to decision-making positions”, she shouted. “We put you up there to fight for us but you do not take long to join the men’s club.À

In Lesotho, it is a custom that chieftainship remains male dominated. Women (particularly widows) do occupy the office “under certain circumstances”. Qualified women are sidelined on the basis of custom governed by patriarchy tendencies. Despite the existence of this discriminatory custom, Senate Masupha – a woman – is challenging the custom and Chieftainship Act which disentitles women. This media highlight analyses an article that reported on the chieftainship court case between the Senate and Lepoqo (her half-brother).

“I was a girl. I came from a poor and polygamous family. And I belong to the Johanne Marange apostolic sect.” Ordinarily, these three circumstances would have sealed the fate of high-flying 24-year-old Miss Bridget Moyo and automatically rendered her a present and future beggar. Being a girl did not spare her the challenges peculiar to girls and women. “My education was considered optional; it was the first thing to be sacrificed in times of crises. My brothers, uncles and male cousins’ needs had to come first for the family in a community that believed the future of the family lay in these people’s hands. “It was automatic that the family’s resources had primarily to be spent on them,” Miss Moyo, whose father had six wives and 23 children, told hundreds of Guruve villagers, secondary school children, senior Government officials gathered for the launch of the US$19 million secondary education bursary fund for girls at Chifamba Secondary School. The UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) released the funds that would be channelled through the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) and are expected to enable 24 000 girls from poor families attend secondary school. Born and raised in Wedza district, Miss Moyo, a beneficiary of the Camfed secondary school bursary for girls, recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship from the Women’s University in Africa.

Police have launched an extensive manhunt for a Tutume who raped and stabbed a 30 year old woman to death last weekend.
The woman , who lived alone at Matombomashaba a cattle post , west of Tutume village died at Nyangabwe Referral Hospital Intensive Care Unit early this week.
A neighbour who prefered not to be named told the voice in an interview that the woman was brutallyattacked such as that her stomach was ripped open.
When we found the woman she could hardly speak probably she lost a lot of blood after the attack. Althogh no one saw the culprit,, people suspect a certain herd boy, said the traumatised neighbour who reported the incident to the police after attending to the woman sream for help.

She knew when it was time to plough the fields. She knew how to produce a good harvest – in quality and quantity. She always looked forward to the season when she would spend most of her time om the family’s small farm. Back then, a house stand allocated to the family was accompanied by a plot within a larger communal farming area held in trust by the local chief. She had a good idea how deep she had to plant seeds for maize, soya beans, beans and other grains she farmed.

On 9 August 1956, a huge gathering of women stood at the Union Building in Pretoria and sag a freedon song to the then South African Prime Minister, JG Strydom. “Wathint’ adafazi, wathint’ imbokodo, strijdom,” they sang. Since then “You strike a Woman, You strike a Rock” has a special meaning for South African, men and women. One of those women was Dr Sophie Williams-de Bruyn, the last leaders still alive that historic Women’s March to the Union Buildings.

Calendar of Events – Women’s Month 2012