I have grown tired of hearing about these female rapists, and all the terrible things they have done to their poor victims. While it is sad that these men were violated and degraded in such a manner, I am struggling to understand why their rape seems to have taken precedence over all other rape cases. Countless male rapists are getting away with violating minors but we can rest assured that all these female rapists will be caught, and brought to justice.

For one thing, there has been more than adequate, (or necessary), media coverage of the atrocities, and it seems the police’s hard work on the case has paid off, as 3 of the offenders have now been apprehended, charged with 17 counts of aggravated indecent assault and released on $300 bail each. It is my hope that in the future that the police will be as swift with men who rape children because some of these monsters are getting away scot-free!

Several newspaper articles have described the large crowds that gathered outside the Gweru Police Station, wanting to beat the female rapists held there. Why is the same sense of outrage not shown when we hear of men raping minors and other vulnerable members of society? I read with outrage about a Masvingo man who allegedly raped his 18-year-old daughter at least 12 times, and was last month released on $100 bail. A $100 bail, for a man who lives with his victim? Are they crazy? Why, also, was this story only reported on once? If stories like this received even half the publicity that the female rapists have received, maybe the “playing field” would be a little more even. I was also surprised when the names and photos of the 3 female rapists were released. When was the last time we ever saw any one of the monsters that desecrate the bodies of minors photographed? Rape is rape, let’s treat all offenders the same! If we are now going to start photographing these despicable people, let’s take photos of them all!

Perhaps the manner in which this case has been handled and reported on can be a template for all incidences of this form of violence, especially against children.

With only two days to go until the beginning of the 16 days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section played host to a presentation on the campaign, led by young Zimbabwean women’s rights activist, Cleopatra Ndlovu. She defined gender-based violence (GBV) as an umbrella term encompassing “any harm that is perpetrated against a person’s will, because of their sex – this violence has a negative impact on the physical, the psychological health, the development and the identity of the person”.

The theme for this year’s campaign is: From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women! Ndlovu said that the focus on militarism last year and this year, is due to the rise in conflicts and political unrest all over the world. In Zimbabwe, election-time has become synonymous with violence (especially rape), and many of our women shudder to think what will happen to them before and during next year’s polls.

“We live in a country that is not concerned about the issues of GBV,” said Ndlovu as she highlighted the lack of progress or significant change in the situation of women, despite the many protocols, treaties and declarations signed by the nations with regards to discrimination against women and the increase of increase of women in decision-making positions – Zimbabwe has failed to reach the 30% by 2005 goal, as female representation in Parliament to date, falls short of this target.

But the situation is not completely dismal, according to Ndlovu, as women have made huge strides already:

- Establishment of Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development
- National Gender Policy
- Domestic Violence Act
- Victim friendly units

Despite this progress Ndlovu says women still have a long way to go. Another problem she highlighted was the fact that the people who are at the forefront of the fight against GBV are mainly women, through the many organisations who are a part of the women’s movement. The involvement and participation can make it much less of a struggle.

In conclusion, Ndlovu said that the media also had huge role to play in accurately informing the nation on the plight of women in reporting on gender-based violence.

On Tuesday, Varaidzo blogged about the sexual harassment she witnessed on her way to work on one morning, when she saw a woman in a mini-skirt being tormented by a heckling mob.

We shared this in our email newsletter this week, and received a number of comments from readers about the post – some more sympathetic than others.

We welcome  your comments on the original blog, or on the responses below.

I miss home so much but sometimes being away from all that madness is a good break. I was that girl a few years ago, I remember feeling so terrified as they shook the kombi back and forth thnking they would overturn it. I a full figured, beautiful african woman. I respect myself and those around me. What I wear should be a choice I am allowed to make and live with. If I am comfortable in it why not? The man I date absolutely adores that I dress that way. I am based in Cape Town now and those are some of the little priviledges that I wish I could have back home. The freedom to dress as I please without being named a whore, the freedom to go to a party or a bar for a few drinks with the girls without the men around thinking that I want to be picked up or that I am a prostitute. I am an educated, independant and empowered woman who hopes that one day those men will gain those qualities too. I wish I could attend the march against rape, but they have my support in sisterhood.

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This should stop i remember in the day women had a march in mini skirts and its time we did that again. Actually lets face it if Zimbabwe had a beach like Moz, Durban and Cape Town- will these men be disgusted? Why is it that the men who go to the beach do not ‘attack’ sun bathers are they more civalised than these landlocked’animals. No women do not desrve to be treated like this, afterall most of these women come from homes where their parents( including fathers), husbands and male figures allow them to go out. We need to publise and arrest men who dehumanise women’s bodies and esteem the DV Act surely has a clause, it is like being arrested when mob attacks a victim its time we start seesing arrests.

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I am very much disgruntled by such unruly behaviour. That is barbaric. I feel the long arm of the law should deal with ths hooligans. These are potential rapists. I am a man myself but it realy hurts me. Imagine if that was yo own sista. How would you feel. ZRP should wake up and do something with these rowdy people.

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This is the new world we’re living in . I was not at the scene but I can assure you that most of those men who were hackling the woman are not ‘very ‘educated-they miss the softening influences of morden civilisation. Thats exactly the kind of women we want in our streets-women who know that they are women. We are not from the Arab world so its not a crime to dress the way you like as long as you feel good about it.

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Yes males respond to visual stimuli and we are meant to either court if you like and leave if you don’t. I you like and you know you have NO chance of getting lucky, dont hurl abuse at her or even worse, abuse her physically. I reckon deep down thse chaps like what they see!

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Its ok for women 2 dress comfortably especially in these high temperatures .However there is a line to be drawn ,some dressing leave a lot to be desired,obviously vultures will pounce on such women.I’m also a man,a woman who dresses scantily will obviously attract the opposite sex.Women should dress scantily in their homes not outdoors.

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This hypocritical attitude by men makes me very cross because it is simply not true to tradition. I am old enough to remember what people wore as traditional clothes. I saw them with my own eyes.

In Mashonaland I saw women with narrow flaps of animal skin in the front and at the back that were tied to a string around the waist. Except for the inner part of the thighs there was no covering of the legs from waist to ankle. Admittedly, the flaps of animal skin reached to the knees, but the larger portions of the thighs and buttocks were completely open to view. Women wore nothing on top except a string or two of beads.

In Manicaland, near the Umvumvumvu Bridge, I remember seeing a young woman in about 1961 striding up the main highway as though she owned the universe. She was magnificent! All she was wearing was a miniskirt of knotted inner bark from a tree. I believe that was probably traditional dress for her area, although I don’t know for certain.

I think this persecution of women over clothing styles is fueled by men’s emotional fear of women’s female power. It has no logical reason behind it apart from the desire to control women and prevent us from realising what enormous power we have. Without women there is no life!. This desire is not confined to black males, but is expressed differently in other cultures e.g. lower rates of pay for the same work.

However, having said that, I think it is sensible to protect oneself by wearing less revealing clothes. Keep the miniskirts and tight trousers for home consumption. It’s not really so difficult. In Arab countries they wear their beautiful clothes under their burkas.

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Zimbabwean men need to WAKE UP and move with the times.  This lady was not trying to sell herself to the highest bidder, but wearing what she felt comfotable in and what she wanted to. I’m sure many of the men that were insulting this lady were in fact ogling/admiring her. What about the ‘big bellied’ men wearing baggy, hanging trousers, vests and sandals – now that is disgusting to women, but they never pass comments or insults. Wake up Zimbabwean Men!!

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I think there are things we simply have to treasure. Mahomed Ali once told his daughters that, u never find gold or rubies strawn on the surface, u have to dig deep underground to find the gold. A preacher once said, yo man must find something on you that he is proud of saying, it it only me who has ever seen this. Ladies, lets just be dignified and cover what has to be covered.

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I failed to get the gist of Varaidzo’s narrative on the dress issue.I think sometimes women take their freedom & rights too far or for granted. Women are their worst enemy, as much as we understand their quest for liberty and empowerment,what does nakedness or semi-nakedness got to do with the upliftment of women? We all understand that women have been marginalised but i think it’s stupid really to show us your buttocks and underwear in the same vein. Going the Britney Spears route is a disgrace.Let’s have demarcations on making our voices heard and misinterpretation of western modernity.Imagine men marching with their corks exposed to protest against male ircumcision,fine,we could have got the world’s attention but what about our image as a people.I will definitely support any woman fighting against partriachy but they don’t have to show me their buttocks for me to take them seriously,only the dignity with which they do it will do the trick.

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My sister Varaidzo has a point but in putting it accross had a bias and an element on her tone of demeaning men as barbaric yet it was a sample of few cultural conserved group. To this end, her article become offending to us men. The similar event also happened when i was travelling from Harare to Mutare, I had a stop over in Marondera and I saw a group of women with very few young boys shouting and calling all sorts of names to a lady who was in a min-skirt. I then out of curiosity asked some of the ladies who were doing that why they were doing what they were doing to a lady like them? They said it was all wrong for her to wear such a mini-skirt and was an embarrassment to women hood. Against this backdrop, Sister Varaidzo your tone stigmatised men as unreasonable people and as such your article can not go unchallenged. You took a paralysis of analysis of that event. The fact that she was rescued by a man shows that not all men would love to see ladies harrassed or embrassed because of their choices and taste. Again not all men are enticed by body exposure of ladies.

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I find it so repulsively shameful how the men of this nation behave and perceive women who are liberal enough to exercise their democratic right. Do we have to stage a protest like the one the South African women staged a few years back, clad in mini-skirts so as to shame the men into respecting us?

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Its unfortunate that such events still happen even when woman are aware that some areas are just a no no zone when some what half dressed. I dont blame the blunt crowd. Some woman just offend public decency. Wearing fabrics that they know surely heads will turn. However we cant change society (men) over this behaviour. Because even when you dress nicely and one passer by decides to comment and you dont answer hell can break loose. My advice go to lower density areas when you feel that short skirt is what you are feeling today.leave the other folks to the longs.

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Thanks for the enlightening expose about the way men/women treat women in everyday life. It however, provoked a wild thought about sexual harassment, a term usually used by men and women to highlight harassment of women by men. When and how are men harassed by females? If a man comments about the way a woman is dressed or her body structure it is taken as sexual harassment. But men are daily harassed sexually by women intentionally exhibiting their beautiful bodies in public places. Women boast that if they want something from a man they simply have to show off as much of their legs as possible. Ask taxi drivers, driving licence inspectors, police officers and they can tell you lots of stories of how women use their structure to get bargains. Have you ever seen a prostitute wearing a nun’s attire to solicit? They harass men by putting on mini skirts, scant clothing, etc. So when a woman appears in public scantily clothed, men are obviously harassed and they should be protected against sexual harassment. I am not saying that women should not be allowed to wear whatever they want. But they must in the process know that some men become provoked. No man is sexually provoked when he sees a mother nursing a baby. But when a woman exposes her breasts, then some men are sexually harassed. During the 16 days of gender activism, both sexes should be made aware about what sexual harassment entails, lest we keep bashing innocent people.

There was a time when Zimbabwean women had to be extremely careful about how they dressed in public. Cover up, or they (men) would take it off. Wearing wrap-over skirts, shorts and, of course, mini-skirts was just asking for trouble. Even tight fitting hipsters were a big no-no.

Recently it seemed that women were more able to dress liberally in the central business district (CBD). Women of all ages, shapes and sizes wear tight trousers, squeeze into skinny jeans, dress in short ‘dress-tops’ with leggings or jeggings, and even shorts now, without fearing for their safety. As the temperatures have risen, so have the hemlines, so I was very shocked with what I saw only this morning. It would seem that history is repeating itself, and we women have to once again BEWARE OF WHAT WE WEAR in town.

I was on my way to work this morning and as the combi drew closer to the rank, there was a sudden traffic-jam, indicating that something had just happened. In the distance a crowd could be heard, whistling, shouting, and laughing. Everyone seemed to be focussed on a particular moving object. The rumbling crowd drew closer and some of what they were shouting could now be heard: “Hure!” “Mubvisei!”, “Dzimwe hembe dzasara kupi?”, “Ndizvo zvawanga uchida!” “Ungaita chipfambi mangwanani ano?”(“Bitch!” “Take them off”, “Where are the rest of your clothes?”, “This is what you wanted!” “How can you prostitute yourself so early in the morning?”)

The crowd was getting more and more irate and some of the hecklers had even taken out their mobile phones to photograph this mysterious trouble-maker. She finally emerged, dressed in a blue long sleeved top, a denim mini-skirt and flat sandals. She was tightly clutching a man’s arm and he attempted to manoeuvre them both through the enraged crowd, all of whom were men. Cameras clicked, fists banged on combi bodies, the men bellowed threats, hurled insults and comments of disapproval and disgust. The girl and her ‘saviour’, were swallowed by the growing crowd, (other men, having heard the commotion, had come to join in the taunting), only to emerge moments later halfway across the now completely blocked street. The pair, disappearing again into the belly of the beastly crowd, and miraculously re-appeared inside a parked combi. The mob then encircled it and began rocking it from side to side. With the crowd thus occupied, the road cleared and we were free to move.

All the men in the combi had something to say. One said that he didn’t wish to see such things as they would further raise his already high blood pressure, but all the while, he craned his head to see how the scene we had left behind was unfolding. Another said that they should indeed take her clothes off, because that is what she wanted and deserved. All the men agreed that she was immoral, and that displaying her body like that was disgusting.

I wondered why they had not looked away when they saw her ‘disgusting’ thighs only half covered by the mini-skirt, and why some of them had smiled and even licked their lips at the sight of other men tugging at the small garment.

All the women were silent, probably fearing that the bad old days have come back to haunt us once again.

Get some culture! Get to the International Images Film Festival for Women. This year’s theme: Women with Goals.

Download the programme here

I don’t think that when Rumbi Katedza wrote Playing Warriors she had a great message in mind. I think she simply wanted to tell a story she and the women she knew could relate to. The film is a snapshot in the lives of Nyarai (Kudzai Sevenzo), Maxi (Nothando Lobengula) and Nonto (Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana), three women in their late twenties. Maxi is an irreverent lawyer who is having an affair with a prominent politician. Nonto is the quiet friend who is about to be married and Nyarai, the central character, is a high flying career woman with a meddlesome mother.

From the beginning of the film it is obvious that Nyarai does not fit in the mould of the traditional Zimbabwean girl. The film opens with a dream sequence set in ancient Zimbabwe. A young warrior places the lion he has slain at Nyarai’s father’s feet.  He, apparently, is seeking Nyarai’s hand in marriage. Nyarai’s father looks to his wife for approval, this she gives with a smile. Everything appears as one would expect on such an occasion. The camera focuses on Nyarai’s face and the audience finds that rather than being breathless with excitement at having such gift presented for her hand, Nyarai does not look as pleased. In fact she almost looks annoyed.

Traditional Zimbabwean women are supposed to want marriage above everything else. Particularly to a man who so obviously can provide. In the film is it understandable that Nyarai will not commit to her ridiculously self absorbed toy-boy Che. Their relationship is simply about sex. It is he who needs her to survive. Nyarai’s relationship with Leslie, a well-heeled divorcée arranged for and heartily supported by her mother is far more complex. He goes to great pains to woo her, closing down a restaurant just for her and performing that rarity among Zimbabwean men, cooking her a meal. Even the audience feels that there might be a happy ending. But Leslie is merely mutton dressed as lamb. He confesses a bad relationship with his children, and gives them the kind of parenting that reduces his role in their lives to a bank account with a face.  He is arrogant, impatient and only acknowledges Nyarai’s relevance as his woman, not as her own person. This film is bold in claiming that women need more from their men than material security. Despite his money and their sexual chemistry Nyarai rejects Leslie because he doesn’t listen and therefore doesn’t understand her needs.

Nyarai’s mother, who embodies the traditional and cultural expectation placed upon young women, is perplexed by her oldest daughter’s impractical insistence on marrying only for love.

Maxi’s brazen and abrasive rejection of her burden of expectation provides an alternative angle to Nyarai’s gentle questioning. Fiercely independent, Maxi is everything a good Zimbabwean girl shouldn’t be. She smokes, she’s loud in her denouncement of traditions and cultural roles and she’s having sex with a married politician for pleasure and professional gain. But despite herself and everything she knows to be true about her lover, she falls in love with him.

In contrast to Maxi’s and to a lesser extent Nyarai’s tumultuous relationship with tradition is Nonto’s active acceptance of it. The film takes the audience through her experiences as a bride.  When she announces that she is getting married her friends question her decision not to have premarital sex and how she would cope with the disappointment should he be a bad lover. But Nonto is steadfast in her faith in her relationship, and as a born again Christian in the wisdom of her God. The film also depicts the processes involved in traditional marriages. There is a hilarious roora scene, where the groom’s munyayi (negotiator) uncomfortably pleads with Nonto’s uncles to lower the rusambo (bride price), and another showing the bridal party practising masteps (wedding dance) with a dictatorial choreographer.

On the surface Playing Warriors is a feel good chick flick. But it is also a film that documents the deeper change within Zimbabwe. It is a bold in showing independent free-thinking women who are in full-ownership of their sexuality, and demand more than material fulfilment from their relationships. It is also one of the first feature films about Zimbabwean women that does not characterise them as victims of male-driven tradition. I think the greatest lesson of the film is that it is possible for traditions and cultures to evolve, and change is not always about leaving the values that are important, such as family and community, behind.