16 Days of Activism against Gender Abuse :Stand Up for your rights women of Zimbabwe

The 16 days of activism against gender violence started last Saturday. As Zimbabwe degenerates into a country run by violence, the culture of violence is seeping into our society. As the saying goes, if the father of the house is violated, he will violate his wife, who will violate the maid, who will violate the kids, who will violate the dog, which will violate the cat, which will violate the mice, At the end of the day the whole house is violated. While this is women's week, lets all spare a moment to remember all those who have been violated.

By Free-ZimYouth's Women-Wing

So many things have been happening in Zimbabwe over the past few months regarding the status of women in the home and on the political scene. For many years now most of our mothers, sisters, grandmothers and others have merely been door mats for their husbands and bosses at work with the girl child losing out most of the time when resources fell short in the family.

It was heartening to learn in the past week or so of the 50-50 equality campaign launched by Zimbabwean women. We, the exiled girl child of Zimbabwe, have received the 50-50 equality campaign as a big step towards gender freedom. It is a fact that women are the most vulnerable victims of on-going and worsening Zimbabwean crisis.

The campaign by women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU) to boost the 22 percent women political representation to 50 percent is a fundamental right we young Zimbabweans need to be seen advocating for.

It is morally wrong to continue to exclude the girl child in the decision making processes, it be at local or national level. Women are the pillar of the country and they have been used for a long time now as mere political pawns – we feel it is high time we as women from Zimbabwe joined the 50-50 campaign to have more women included at all decision making processes that affect the country.
We would like to take this opportunity to salute our fellow comrades -women of Zimbabwe that is - the 22 percent who are already involved in the everyday struggle people of trying to bring change to Zimbabwe and those that are still trying to make it into the 150-member House of Parliament.

We salute people like Grace Kwinjeh, Thokozani Khupe, Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga, Lucia Matienga,Tabetha Khumalo, Jennifer Williams, Magodonga Mahlangu, Emily Mpofu and not forgetting our diaspora comrades Sandra Nyaira, Violet Gonda, Mandisa Mundawarara, Yvonne Marimo, Carole Gombakomba, Patience Rusere, Yvonne Mahlunge, Emily Madamombe and many others we have not named here.

We need many more women to join the debate about issues that affect them, most of all us as women to stop being our own enemies so we can work together and aim to push for more female representation not only at parliament levels but also at local levels.

The women we have mentioned above and many others who continue to bear the brunt of Zanu PF’s iron-fisted rule at home are our role models who have dedicated their lives for the restoration process of good governance in our motherland. It is unfortunate that some have lost their way and have turned from heroes to monsters. People like Joice Mujuru, Shuvai Mahofa, Oppah Muchinguri, Edina Madzongwe, our the so-called First Lady Grace Mugabe and Jane Mutasa whom we all know for cheating our mothers in the name of the Indigenous Business Women's Organisation (IBWO) – whatever became of it, one wonders?

These are self-imposed hypocritical figures who have failed to speak-out and to represent the women of Zimbabwe. They have betrayed the dreams of Josiah Tongogara, Jason Ziyapapa Moyo, Herbert Chitepo, Sally Mugabe and father Zimbabwe Joshua Nkomo who sacrificed their lives to see black Zimbabweans free from the shackles of colonialism.

This applies again to people like South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Vice President Mlambo-Ngcuka who have turned into fully-grown hypocrites and are failing to sympathize with the ordinary girl child and women of Zimbabwe. And we have said it officially that we as an organisation will continue to speak out and expose such hypocrisy to the international community.

For almost a decade, the women of Zimbabwe have suffered economically and politically due to bad policies which have been put in place by the Mugabe regime, which in our view is no different from the notorious Nazi regime.

We have been raped, tortured and some killed for demanding our civil rights and all this violates international guidelines for human rights. It pains us when we read news from home – almost every other day there is a story of a young girl being raped somewhere in the country, this happens everyday and because of the falling standards within the police force, most of the perpetrators remain free to even do more harm to women in a society which has lost its innocence because of a crisis triggered by a president who wants to remain in power at all costs.

The question we all ask is for how long will the girl child continue to suffer in Zimbabwe? How long will our mothers continue to bear the brunt of this political and economic crisis? It is now, we say enough is enough.

Statistics released by recently are also a major reason for alarm. Figures of the plight of children released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) exposing how our little sisters and brothers are being forced to work to source funding for school fees and food and the plight of thousands of orphaned children across the country, whose parents fell prey to the AIDS pandemic, add to the sorry situation we are talking about.

As young people of Zimbabwe, the country’s future leaders, we need to stand up for our families, our communities and our country. It is us who are going to liberate Zimbabwe. Let us all rise and fight the tyranny in our country. We are extremely worried by the abuse of youth by the regime through the Border Gezi training camps - this is state tailored terrorism that us hurting the country’s future leaders and citizens.

Comrades it is now time we demand our civil rights which have long been robbed by the Mugabe regime. Our dignity has been robbed, it is time we all join hands and speak as one.

Girl Power!!

"It is now time Mugabe realize you can jail, kill a revolutionary but you cannot jail, kill a revolution".

Power To The People

Chipo Chaya and Yeukai Taruvinga are members of the Free-ZimYouth's Women-Wing. They can be contacted on 07904395496 (Chipo) and Yeukai on 07940437496.