Gender

Although it is intended to help alleviate the financial crisis and ease shortages in the economy, the new Foreign Exchange Warehouse and Retail Shops programme in Zimbabwe will likely worsen the plight of already over-burdened Zimbabwean women, especially the large numbers who rely on cross border trade for a living.

An infuriating, yet widespread, characteristic of our society is how blame is heaped on women, pretty much whenever something goes wrong, especially in relationships. This is particularly painful when couples are unable to have a baby, with the blame always leveled against the woman. She is forced to go through a series of fertility tests and hop from one doctor to another, just to determine her ability to have a baby.

“I openly admit it. My wife is more intelligent than I am,” says Bheki Maseko, with a sense of fulfillment on his face. “I know that not many men would proclaim this, but this ought to be the direction of the 21st century man. Her success is my success.”

For me the most provocative aspect of Robert Mugabe’s presidential run-off campaign this time around is the abuse of word empowerment and its simultaneousy use of women -- particularly in adverts that are inserted in mainly the State media. I am particularly revolted by an advert in support of Robert Mugabe’s ‘empowerment’ policy or stance (whatever you may call it) inserted by a group who I am hearing of for the first time, called the Young Women Movement (YWM).

Whether we talk about homophobia or xenophobia, we need to acknowledge the fact that these are hate crimes and that for as long as human rights are not seen as indivisible, these violations will continue in other forms and this continent of ours that we call home will perish.

The alarming increases in food prices are devastating to societies’ most vulnerable populations. United Nations (UN) Secretary General-Ban Ki-moon recently noted, "This steeply rising price of food - it has developed into a real global crisis.” The World Bank estimates that food prices have risen by 83 percent in just three years.

Apart from the Government demonstrating its commitment to improve education by allocating Sh1.86 trillion in the 2007/08 budget, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is faced with a challenge of pregnant girls dropping out of school year after year.

Prisca Mutale, a Chinsali resident in Zambia’s Northern Province sold her two daughters aged 10 and 12 for marriage to help her to feed the other six children in her care. She says it was her last resort, since the father of her other daughter abandoned her and the children.

The Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) is conducting a massive SMS Women's Day campaign. EASSI is a woman's organisation that monitors the commitments Governments in the Eastern African countries have made to advancing women's concerns.

Mary Tal is a refugee from Cameroon and the Project Director of Whole World Women Association (WWWA), a refugee women focus group based in Cape Town.
The group is a safe space for refugee women from all over Africa to come and share their experiences, gain skills and information about issues affecting women, especially refugees. With all the stories that have been written by the women themselves, WWWA has managed to publish a story and poetry book called 'Living on the fence'.