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Women unnerved by police conduct
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)
March 09, 2011

Women who took part in a march to commemorate International Women's Day, organised by Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), were disappointed after police officers ordered 16 women to remove the union's T-shirts and walk half dressed to Bulawayo Central Police station where they were detained.

Police harassed the women despite that a court order had been obtained to clear the march after police had denied ZCTU clearance to march from the union's offices to Stanley Square at 8am yesterday morning.

Before 8am police were seen patrolling around ZCTU offices, Farley Funeral Parlour, the second point of departure and 3rd Avenue, the route leading to Stanley Square.

Organisers of the march were forced to keep changing the points of departure because the police had said that they could not march in the city centre. Some women were forced to turn back as they were intimidated by the police who kept threatening to violently attack them if they took to the streets. In her speech the guest of honour, Member of Parliament Dorcas Sibanda, said that women's rights are not considered as human rights hence the harassment of women by the police.

Police recently arrested 23 women from Women Of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and two others from Umthwakazi Liberation Trust for unclear reasons while holding meetings in separate incidents.

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