I’m in full support of Minister Biti’s ban on second hand underwear. I just don’t support his logic for it. Biti is variously quoted as saying

“I am told we are now even importing women’s underwear in this country. How does that happen? If you are a husband and you see your wife buying underwear from the flea market, you would have failed”

I’m not certain how many men have an intimate knowledge of the details of their partner’s under garments, but I would wager very few. Be it La Senza or Mupedzanhamo, barring stains and large gaping holes, I quite doubt the ability of the average Zimbabwean man to be able to tell the difference. The only time men really seem to notice is when it is unattractive. And how many really care? More importantly, are we as women willing to let them? It seems to me that millions of women all over the world, including Zimbabwe, have struggled for sole custody of their bodies and the right to clothe them as they see fit. In other words, except for the obvious health and safety issues which are the government’s and particularly the Minister of Health’s concern, it is neither the government’s nor the Minister of Finance’s business where women buy their underwear.

This entry was posted on January 11th, 2012 at 1:28 pm by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.