As we commemorate the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, I thank and congratulate my sisters in particular, for your commitment to issues concerning our empowerment as it relates to peace and security in the home and in our communities. And furthermore, those who work for gender equality and equity.
In this regard, our victory lies in the power and finesse of ‘girl power’ as we collectively strategise, lobby, engage and influence the ‘corridors of power’ to ensure a violence-free world for all women.
The theme this year is “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women.”
Zimbabwean women are fighting a peculiar kind of war, a kind of militarism that strips them of their dignity each month they are faced with their menstrual cycle and faced with the agony of having no water to have a decent bath. The kind of militarism that sees them visit public toilets with no doors to protect them or shield them from prying eyes. The kind of militarism that makes sanitary ware a rare commodity for the rich elites only – the rest just have to adjust to primitive methods grand ma passed down from ages ago.
A militarism that sees them endure endless nights in the dark, left at the mercy of senseless men who take advantage even of sleeping toddlers – the heart wrenching and nauseating stories are well documented.
Every nation or country is always referred to as a ‘she’ because of her nurturing effect on any land. You treat ‘her’ right and that land has its issues in order – economic, social, political or even religious. However, of late there have been the loud shrills and cries from women — our mothers, sisters, nieces suffering the consequences of an economy on a free-fall — the impact, it is common knowledge, affects women more than men.
But ‘she’ is not bitten. Although at times ‘she’ is beaten. Still ‘she’ is not smitten. She fights on. And so, in the next 16 days, we honour her courage, her resilience, as she tells her story and reminds us of battles fought and won and those still to be embarked on.
For Zimbabwe it is the simpler things in life we lack that qualify us from the rest of the world. What percentage of our population drinks treated piped water? What running and survival battles do women go through to get clean drinking water? As long as our maternal duties make us subservient to social needs then our own dreams continue to be secondary. In even simpler terms we are still managing everyday garbage in the house, or as long as we use the bush toilet because there is no flashing water in the pipe or furthermore, we gather firewood because ZESA continues to be random, we are forever enslaved in systematic violent oppression. A brutal form of violence that needs to be acknowledged by any gender activist worth their salt. Surely our definition of violence needs to go notch higher and recognize this form of violence beyond the ones we daily acknowledge. A special kind of sophistication is needed here, not just in definition, but in response too – what greater time than the season we are in, when the world is sensitive and focused to issues affecting women, issues that disturb their peace.
Indeed many of us are victims of brutal forms of physical and sexual violence, however, we must step out of the box and acknowledge too that, in this day and age, lack of access to clean water is a form of violence.
Ladies, we are the heart and soul of life, as we daily subsidise the failures of the system, with our energy, zeal and hard-work, to keep our families and communities going, giving hope in hopeless situations.
It has become a perfected war-cry of defiance and a sound of hope to say “after all I am alive” — that becomes a major achievement. As the history of humanity remains hinged on class struggles, the fight for women’s rights is intricately interwoven with it. Zimbabwe still has a long way to go. Women are ready for the fight.
Consequently, the history of silent oppression lends its lost voice to this exploding vocal consciousness, as exhibited in this season each year. The world remembers those women who have been raped, killed or maimed in war situations; celebrates the survivors and makes new commitments and affirmations that this cycle of violence has to end. Violence in all its forms has to end. It will take more than just a global campaign – charity they say begins at home.
It takes some honest sisters to go beyond the global NGO rhetoric and agenda setting, smell the stench at their door steps and say – “I have been violated, enough is enough.”
Grace Kwinjeh is a feminist, journalist, and political activist from Harare, Zimbabwe. She is a founding member of Zimbabwe’s political party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). She currently resides in Brussels, Belgium.
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