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Federation of African Media Women (FAMWZ) Newsletter
FAMWZ
March 15, 2002
Friday Network
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Bill TOP
18
January 2002
In most cases
women are left behind in national debate, especially debates of
a legislative nature. Realising this FAMWZ brought media women together
to discuss and to give input to the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Bill which posed as a threat to media practitioners,
if the Bill were passed in Parliament in its original state.
FAMWZ invited
the MISA Director, Sarah Chiumbu, to talk about the Bill and its
implications to the media practitioners and to give media women
an opportunity to air their opinions regarding the Bill and what
recommendations they wanted to be incorporated.
Media women
agreed that the Bill was draconian and contradicting in that while
it was meant to allow access to information it actually stripped
off the rights and freedoms of media practitioners. Some media women
said it spelt more like the death of their career. MISA agreed to
incorporate the issues raised by media women in the MISA petition
to government to ammend the Bill.
Media’s Portrayal of Women Living With HIV/Aids TOP
25
January 2002
The way women
are portrayed by the media in the face of the HIV/Aids pandemic
has become an issue of concern as they are often depicted at fault.
The purpose of the meeting was to try and help each other as women
on how to live positively with the pandemic, as well as to share
ideas since all were either infected or affected by the disease.
Present in the
audience were women who had HIV/Aids and were living positively.
They were given a platform to share their experiences. It was realized
that the link between gender violence and HIV/Aids stems from the
way women were socialized and their position in society whereby
it was almost impossible for a woman to negotiate for safe sex.
When asked how many knew their HIV status very few women in the
audience knew.
Our concern
was that as organizations or individuals we operate or go about
our businesses as if we are not affected or infected by this scourge.
Quite often we want to talk about the disease as outsiders and its
affecting them elsewhere and yet its in our midst.
Some pertinent
points that were raised in the discussions were:
- It is high
time the media stopped portraying women living positively with
Aids as hopeless because life continues even after being diagnosed.
- The media
should be a tool for change in fighting and demystifying the HIV/Aids
virus and should not portray people living with the virus as having
asked for it.
- Some women
still think that the condom is meant for commercial sex workers
whereas men are more receptive to the use of the female condom.
- The media
should change the face of HIV/Aids by writing gender sensitive
articles as well as refraining from using terms which further
stigmatise people living with HIV/Aids.
- There is
need to address married women because most thought they were safe
because of their marital status.
The Sexual Offences Act and how it Empowers Women
in Sexual Matters TOP
1
February 2002
Zimbabwe passed
the Sexual Offences Act in August 2001 but very few women, including
media women knew about the Act.
Some points
raised in the discussions were:
- Media women
expressed that little was done to make the Sexual Offences Act
visible. The reason that it did not receive adequate coverage
was because the media were not made aware of it. Some said they
had not heard about the Act until the session.
- It was noted
that it may be difficult to prove an individual was HIV Positive
and had deliberately infected a partner as stated in the Sexual
Offences Act.
- There is
need for more awareness in highlighting the Sexual Offences Act
and others that impact on women in order to empower women.
- Gender related
organizations and organizations working in the area of HIV/Aids
should collaborate to coordinate their activities.
- For the reason
that they do not know how to use the female condom many women
buy male condoms. It was felt that women should be taught how
to use their own condom and there was also need to demystify the
notion that the condom was designed for commercial sex workers.
- Some youths
explained that there was need to package information intended
for them informally and attractively, such as through the use
of music, drama etc. because young people easily "switched
off" if they considered anything as boring.
- The majority
of women present, who have teenage children, said that they faced
difficulties in communicating with their children, especially
on issues related to sex education and HIV/Aids.
- The youths
present felt that the approach which their parents used was inhibiting
and they felt that discussions held in a casual manner were more
fruitful rather than the serious-talk approach.
- It was pointed
out that boys should also be targeted in sex education because
usually the subject was discussed with the girl-child alone.
- Women expressed
that while they had a lot of issues to discuss, to share and to
ask regarding their sexuality, there was no appropriate forum.
Those present agreed that there was need to establish a regular
forum to discuss and exchange information on these matters.
- Women said
that they wanted to know more about the female condom FEMIDOM
Single Women and Legal Guardianship TOP
8
January 2002
Following concerns
raised by women that the Guardianship of Minors Law was not being
applied correctly when they sought to process their children’s legal
documents at the offices of the Registrar-General, FAMWZ hosted
a session which looked at the provisions of the Act and its administration
and enforcement.
Lawyers from
the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) and Women and Law
in Southern Africa (WLSA) explained the often confused terms, guardian
and custodian and how these related to matters of guardianship.
On the question
of whether single mothers had to register a father’s name on a child’s
birth certificate it was explained that the mother of children born
out of wedlock automatically assumed guardianship and legal rights
over her child/ren and that by putting a father’s name on the birth
certificate/s, she would actually be relinquishing her legal rights.
Women at the
meeting shared their experiences and narrated the problems which
they had encountered in securing guardianship of their minor children.
Another matter
of concern that was discussed was the issue of married women who
wish to retain their maiden names and make use of double-barreled
surnames. On the issue of whether it is lawful to force married
women to change their names and baring them from using double barreled
surnames, the lawyer explained that the law is silent on the issue
of name change for married women and that the use of double-barreled
surnames should be a couple’s choice.
In line of the
discussions, the following strategies were adopted:
- Write an
open letter to the Registrar-General highlighting the problems
that women face in issues relating to legal guardianship. The
letter should aim to provoke debate on this issue.
- Sensitise
nurses who contribute to single mothers feeling inadequate because
of their single status.
- Educate personnel
working at the registrar-general’s office to be gender sensitive
and not to intimidate women.
- Need to launch
an educational awareness campaign to all women on matters of guardianship,
especially grassroots women who are starved of information on
crucial matters such as legal guardianship that affect them.
- Advocate
and lobby for a review of the Guardianship of Minors Act to accommodate
mothers as joint guardians.
- Publicise
the current guardianship of Minors Act as many women are not knowledgeable
about its provisions.
As follow up
to a strategy raised in the meeting a task force was set up, comprising
of the
women present at the network. They were tasked to write a letter
with a pseudonymn
to the newsrooms highlighting the concerns raised in the Friday
Network
discussion on how the registrar-general’s office was handling cases
of single
mothers and legal guardianship.
The open letter
was published in The Herald and an article titled "Guardianship
Act Biased"
was also published in The Herald.
FAMWZ Director,
Abigail Gamanya and ZWLA lawyer Ruvimbo ..... also appeared on
ZBC’s This Morning explaining the Act.
The Female Condom TOP
15
February 2002
FAMWZ chose
to discuss the female condom in an effort to try and enhance the
professional and social skills of its stakeholders. Some media women
had never used Femidom while others were sceptical about it regarding
its size, comfort and what their partners would think.
The female condom
which was introduced in an effort to empower women sexually was
still associated with commercial sex workers. This shows that more
public awarneess needs to be done to change people’s attitudes towards
it.
Some women had
even indicated that they would not attend the meeting because it
compromised their purity. However, mindsets about the female condom
have to change, in the face of the HIV/Aids pandemic.
Media men were
invited and some expressed their disgust and expressed the opinion
that the female condom was not appealing. In response media women
expressed their disappointment at the man’s description of the female
condom saying that there was nothing disgusting about it and that
nothing could be done about its size as it had been designed with
the shape of the vagina in mind. The women felt that this proved
that males regarded the female condom as a threat as it intimidated
their sexual powers.
The female condom
was first initiated in the early 80s when female medical practitioners
realized that the only available male condom gave all sexual powers
to men. After its approval in the USA by the Food and Drug Authority,
it was adopted in Zimbabwe in the mid 90s.
FAMWZ Director
expressed heartfelt thanks to Ms Sithokozile Simba of Zimbabwe National
Family Planning Council (ZNFPC), Priscilla Masiiwa of (PSI) and
Daizy Nyamukapa of the National Aids Council (NAC) for the information
they imparted regarding the female condom and their demonstration
on how to use the condom.
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