Last week several Zimbabwean media sources reported the storming of a police station in Gweru by a crowd demanding to beat up three women suspects. The women allegedly had been sexually abusing men, and were arrested when they arrived at an accident scene asking to retrieve an estimated 30 condoms from a car that was involved. Reportedly, there is no legal basis for their arrest. Zimbabwean law does not recognise the rape of a man by a woman, and possession of used condoms is not illegal. In fact their continued detention based on suspicion of raping men is a violation of their constitutional rights. The women have only admitted to being sex workers.

Media outlets have been no less prejudiced on this matter than the police. Reportage of the case cannot be called unbiased, and could be termed salacious. One online publication even trawled Facebook, and published images of one of the suspects.

Comments on the Herald’s article pages include:

Ngavapiwe life sentence with hard labor, Izvezvi tichanzwa kuti they are out on bail and then they have gone into hiding! Please protect us and our children from such vampires
No bails just kills them

Speaking at the police station in Gweru one man is quoted as saying: ‘We are shocked with what is happening in our society where men are now being sexually-abused by women. But how can they make a living through such acts?’

And that’s exactly the point of the outrage. It is not that one human being sexually violated and exploited another human being. It is that women did this to men. Of the countless rape cases reported in the media, none, not even ones involving infants have sparked such an emotional reaction.

There is still a stiffer penalty for stock theft than for rape. Judges still hand down ten-year sentences to rapists and then suspend half of it for good behaviour. Never mind that in some cases the rape is premeditated, and accompanied by aggravated assault and threats. Sometimes the women and girls who are raped are married to their attacker. Yet there is no outrage. There are no elders protesting that this is not our culture and pleading for a return to sanity and traditional values. No outraged mothers and fathers baying for the blood of those who would rob their children of their innocence.  No men demanding the safety of their wives, sisters or daughters.  No mothers declaring ‘Not my child: enough is enough!’. No women’s groups and NGOs demanding that lawmakers stop deliberating on the importation of left hand vehicles and turn their attention to this more pressing issue.

Shame.

It is now very common to see families functioning without full-time maids. Fewer and fewer people can afford to pay a maid for a month’s work, with the trend now being that a maid comes in once or twice a week to help with the bigger jobs. In addition to this, few mothers (the custodians of the home and family life) can afford not to work, so as to take care of their homes and families. Despite all this, the dishes still need to be done, laundry washed and ironed and houses swept and dusted. So, with mum and dad working, no maid, and young children at crèche and school, who is doing all this work? Who is taking care of the home?

Mum, of course! It’s what mum’s do of course, and they’re so great at it! She is the first to get up, preparing everyone for their day (ironing, cooking breakfast, bathing kids, packing school lunches), and cleaning up after them along the way, before they all, (including Mum), set off for work or school.

After a long hard day in the office (just like dad), mum gets home, and begins her “evening shift” at home. Whatever she has not done in the wee hours of the morning, will be waiting for her, when she gets home. Again, she gets everyone settled in for the night (bathing kids, preparing supper, supervising homework and play). All the while, dad is either out, having a beer or seven, or in front of the TV with the day’s paper.

After supper, mum carries the dirty dishes to kitchen sink and washes them, so that at least she can wake up to a clean kitchen at 5am the next morning. You’d think that once the dishes are done and the kids are in bed, her day is done. Oh no, it is quite the contrary, mum must now go out to washing line and bring in the laundry she did before sunrise that morning, and begin to iron it. Maybe, she’ll set herself up in front of the TV, so she can be entertained while she irons. From time to time, she has to switch off the iron in order to go and check on the sleeping children and refill Dad’s water glass, or get him another beer.

With the ironing Mum can now relax. But not before she has soaked the kids’ uniforms so that they are easier to wash in the morning. Finally, she can rest! But can she really rest, with this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she has forgotten to do something? “Oh, well, whatever it is, I’ll do it in the morning.” Mum’s off to bed, to join Dad who’s already been there for a while, (he went straight to bed when he got back from socialising at the bar).

Bathed and thoroughly exhausted, she climbs into bed. He turns over and reaches for her. He’s in the mood tonight. He tells her how beautiful she looks. She rolls her eyes. “I look haggard,” she thinks. “Like I’ve worked three jobs today. And in 6 hours and 23 minutes, I have to do it all again. And he picks this moment to be in the mood! He’s got to be kidding!”

I know several women who have days like this most of their lives. They toil at work and home, putting everyone’s needs before their own. How can it be expected that she should cope with this much work in a day, especially when her husband is so tired and needs a break after a day in the office? These grossly unequal work contributions in the home, (especially where there is no hired help), no doubt lead to burnout, resentment and other issues that can lead to the degeneration of relationships.

“It is easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing–that’s the Lord’s test.”
Mahalia Jackson

These words have really challenged me, as I hope they will challenge many of you. It makes me think of women of the old school, like my mother, who, though widowed early on in her married life, worked hard and struggled on, to look after us, independently. But it seems that women like this are now a dying-breed. When I think about the young women of Zimbabwe, I feel frightened. Even though some of us are ambitious, hardworking and fairly, independent, the majority of us are far from even being able to take care of ourselves, on a very basic level. Times are hard, and with unemployment levels topping 90%, being an independent young woman, is far easier said than done.

Despite how hopeless our economic situation seems I feel as though many young women are not even bothered with independence anymore. Faced, with such a tough economic environment, a lot of us have found it easier to just expect someone else to look after us, with many young women giving up on independence, and instead, seeking out moneyed men to look after them. These young women are making use of their erotic power to get men to take care of them, and in so doing, freeing themselves from the responsibility of their own lives. What these women don’t realise it that they are creating their own monsters.

I mean common sense should tell you that you can’t rightly expect to receive resources without paying for them. All along, unbeknownst to you, the metre has been running. It may not happen today, but eventually your sponsor will get their money’s worth. One may decide to beat it out of you, while another feels that he now has a licence to control you, and another still feels that it gives him the right not to use a condom. And how can you say no to him, when he has supported you for the last year or so. Of course, you can’t say no to him now. You feel beholden, and will therefore comply, right.  And what happens if one day he shows up, and asks for it all back. Unotangira pai? Where will you even begin to source this money?

One of my aunts, a very wise woman, once told me, “Never accept something from a man that you can’t afford to give back.” This advice might be a little extreme, but I think that one lesson we have to learn from it is to not let ourselves be dis-empowered in relationships, by not being independently functional, at the very least.

There are so many Zimbabwean women who don’t like what they see when they look in the mirror. They look at their skin, and wish it would be lighter and brighter, because they believe that then, they will be prettier. Even when I was in high school, it was commonly believed that if a girl (or guy, come to think of it), was light, they were automatically more attractive. This really used to frustrate me, as I thought that some of these “pretty” girls really weren’t pretty at all. It’s attitudes, and silly beliefs like this, that I thought people left behind, when they finished high school, but it seems this that is one belief that haunts so many of Zimbabwe’s women, throughout their lives.

When you look in the mirror and see something you don’t like, it really bothers you, right? You try all you can to remedy it. If it’s a pimple, you try squeezing, drying it with toothpaste and all manner of face washes, masks and creams. You do everything you can to get things back, just the way you like them. In the same way, a lot of women are doing everything in their power to remedy their complexion “problems”. I can’t help but think that, while some of us looked at Michael Jackson’s pasty skin and chastised him for how he had gone too far with the lightening creams, there were many among us who secretly envied him, and longed to know his secret. Now, Zimbabwean women have skin lightening secrets of their own. Illegal and controlled legal substances, that drastically change the appearance of the skin, making it light and bright. The most popular of these are Diprosone ointment and Hydroquinone – oral tablets and creams. Below are the dangerous facts about these drugs. Facts that so many of our women choose to ignore:

Diprosone is a topical corticosteroid, commonly used to relieve the effects of eczema and other skin irritations, due to its anti-inflammatory qualities. This prescription-only substance is however, only used on a short-term basis, as it can cause real, lasting damage to the skin. Many women ignore the recommended dosages and opt to use it daily, as a skin lightener, and to promote hair growth. Prolonged use, or in this case, misuse makes the blood vessels more prominent, can lead to bacterial infections, causes the skin to eventually degenerate, making it thinner, more fragile and susceptible to bruising, then eventually, skin cancer, liver damage, kidney damage or poisoning. Hydroquinone tablets and creams work by basically lessening the concentration of melanin in the skin. It banned in many countries around the world. The long term side-effects are the similar to those mentioned above. One can also begin to get blue-black pigments are deposited onto the skin, (I’m sure you may have seen some unnaturally light women in Harare, with purplish lips).

It is clear that these are very dangerous substances, even in the right hands. So, where are women getting these substances? Well, getting these prescription drugs is easier than you think. One can even get them from their hairdresser, or in some of the Nigerian shops in Harare’s Gulf complex. The dream of lighter, brighter, (and eventually whiter), skin is one that can now come true for the women of Zimbabwe. More and more women are taking the plunge and taking their skin on the road to disaster and ruin. The side effects I mentioned earlier will happen to all its users, eventually.

This morning, in a long-awaited bail hearing Justice Maphios Cheda of the Bulawayo High Court granted Jenni Williams and Magondonga Mahlangu of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) bail on a surety of $200 each, after 13 nights in custody.  The only condition is that they not interfere with any state witnesses.  They have not been asked to surrender travel documents or even to report to the police.  They will appear for remand on Thursday, October 6.

It is clear from this ruling that the judge did not take the case against them very seriously, and we wonder why it took so long for a bail hearing date to be set down.  Was the state attempting simply to punish the two by arresting and holding them on flimsy charges, knowing that in fact they have committed no crime?  If so, it would not be the first time this has happened.  WOZA is dismayed that under the Government of National Unity such a perversion of justice continues, with elements of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the justice system allowed to operate untrammelled without the slightest concern for the basic principles of law and human rights.  We hope that there will be no further delays and they will be released promptly, as is their right.

WOZA would like to thank all those supporters who showed solidarity with Williams and Mahlangu through the past two weeks. Together we can promote a more democratic society in which rights are respected and social justice prevails.