[NYTr] Zimbabwe: Women Pushing for Greater Political Involvement

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

IPS - Dec 30, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40645

ZIMBABWE:  

A "Can Do" Approach to Greater Political Involvement of Women

By Tonderai Kwidini

HARARE, Dec 30 (IPS) - With general elections expected to take place in
Zimbabwe this coming March, a campaign is underway to increase women's
political participation in the Southern African country.

The initiative is a revitalised version of the '50' campaign, which
began last year but failed to gain momentum. Now, activists are
campaigning under the slogan 'Women can do it!'. The effort is being
spearheaded by the Women's Trust, a non-governmental organisation based
in the capital of Harare, and is receiving support from the Norwegian
government.

"The campaign provides a structure and action to mobilise Zimbabwean
women to get involved in the electoral process and constitutional
debates as candidates and voters," Luta Shaba, executive director of
the Women's Trust, told IPS.

"We want to thrash out issues that are stopping us as women from
getting into power and making transformative changes to the lives of
women."

The campaign brings together women from political parties, civil
society organisations, the private sector and educational institutions
throughout the country. In a declaration issued after an August
conference for the initiative, held in Harare, supporters of the
campaign made several demands, including that 50 percent of candidates
for political parties be women -- and for the introduction of
proportional representation.

At present, candidates with the most votes, by whatever margin, are
elected to the presidency and parliament. Proportional representation
would see candidates allocated seats according to their parties' share
of the vote, a system that is often viewed as more effective for
getting higher numbers of women into decision-making posts.

The declaration also recommends that half of party funding provided by
government be reserved for women candidates.

Women constitute 52 percent of the population in Zimbabwe, according to
the Central Statistical Office's most recent census, conducted in 2005.

However, they hold only 19 percent of cabinet posts, 17 percent of
seats in the lower house of parliament and 36.6 percent in the senate,
according to figures from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and
Community Development. They also hold 12 percent of seats in urban
councils, and 28 percent of those in rural councils.

The mismatch between the number of women in Zimbabwe and their presence
in politics is something for which women must shoulder part of the
blame, says Women's Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri.

"The 'PHD' or 'Pull Her Down' syndrome has worked against us women. I
am worried by the extent to which we have internalised our own
oppression and take this out by oppressing other women. We are jealous
and do not want to see other women succeed," she told another
conference held in Harare under the auspices of 'Women can do it', this
time in October.

"We tend to vote for men because our lived experiences have conditioned
us to be subordinates," added Muchinguri, who heads up the Women's
League of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

The minister also pointed a finger at the way in which women's
traditional responsibilities tend to rule out other pursuits: "The
patriarchal nature of our society relegates women to the domestic
sphere...The roles of women as mothers and carers make it impossible
for them to be effective in full time politics."

In addition, "Politics cost money and women often do not have resources
to fund their election campaigns because women are economically
dependent and lack access to basic resources."

Certain activists further note that even if women are not confined to
the home, perceptions that they belong there may undermine their
chances of winning political office.

Zimbabwe has taken steps to help women break free of these constraints.
A National Gender Policy that has been in place since 2004 aims -- in
part -- to have 52 percent of decision-making posts occupied by women.

The country is a signatory to the Southern African Development
Community's (SADC) 1997 Declaration on Gender and Development, which
set a goal of having 30 percent of decision-making posts in member
states in female hands by 2005 (although few countries in SADC reached
this target, it has since been adjusted to having women occupy 50
percent of decision-making posts).

Zimbabwe is also party to the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which requires signatories to
root out discrimination against women in political and public life.

But, warns Alice Kwaramba, assistant programme officer for human rights
and democracy building at the Open Society Initiative for Southern
Africa, a foundation based in Johannesburg, this all amounts to more
bark than bite.

"The ceremonial act of placing signatures on paper has remained
ceremonial and has not been accompanied by actions that translate into
tangible transformation of the status of women," she told IPS.

A question that begs asking is whether activists will be able to muster
broad support for greater women's participation in politics at a time
when Zimbabweans are preoccupied by the severe political and economic
problems afflicting their country.

Hyper-inflation and widespread poverty have put basic commodities
beyond the reach of many, and the United Nations World Food Programme
estimates that about four million people in the country will require
food aid next year.

Various legislative changes that hold out the promise of easing
controls on opposition activity and the media are working their way
through parliament, this after years of government crackdowns on the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), rights activists and
journalists -- and a number of elections marred by irregularities.
SADC-mediated talks between government and the MDC are also underway.

However, as rights watchdog Amnesty International observed in a Dec. 14
statement, "government continues to beat and torture human rights
defenders and political opponents, despite the ongoing mediation
process being facilitated by the Southern African Development Community
(SADC)."

Notes MDC member of parliament Trudy Stevenson: "On top of these
economic and social challenges, female politicians are usually the
targets of campaign violence. They cannot afford to hire bodyguards
like their male counterparts. Violence meted against female candidates
in elections is real."

"I partly blame it on the patriarchal society in which we are living
where women are ascribed certain roles, of which political
participation is not one. I think as an opposition MP I fall between
two stools as a woman...neither commanding the respect of my colleagues
or those from the opposite side," she told IPS.

"Female MPs are very few but our politics is common because we all
suffer from violence meted (out to) us by competing male politicians,
and at times it can be very lonely being a female MP in
Zimbabwe." (END/2007)