| |
Back to Index
For
Viola
By Cathy Buckle
February
14, 2004
Dear Family
and Friends,
If you are a
man please do not be embarrassed to read this letter because the
people I am describing could be your mother, wife, sister or daughter.
This week I visited a newly opened supermarket in Marondera. I had
neither a trolley nor a basket in my hands, just a scrap of paper
and a pen to write down prices. In the aisle where female sanitary
products are displayed a group of 6 men stood in a bunch. As I and
other women looked at the prices of sanitary towels, the men passed
crude comments, made jokes and laughed loudly. The tears welled
up in my eyes at the disgusting behaviour of bored bullies but the
real pain in my heart was for the women. Women who grit their teeth,
ignore the taunts and count their dollars to see if they can afford
to keep themselves clean this month. There were neither tampons
nor cotton wool to buy and a pack of 10 sanitary towels was seventeen
thousand dollars. This is the equivalent of almost 7 loaves of bread,
so for a woman with hungry children at home, the decision about
what to buy is non existent. The same applies to toothpaste, vaseline,
deodorant, talcum powder, shampoo and even soap. Standing next to
me in the supermarket was a very pretty young woman who picked up
the small packet of sanitary towels, looked at the price, sighed,
shook her head and then put them back and left.
The lives of
Zimbabwe's women are not lives anymore, but a series of agonising
decisions. Do we pay a bill or feed our children? Do we buy a bra
or get soap, shampoo and toothpaste for the family? Do we stem the
flow of nature's functions or buy bread for breakfast? This week
women attempted to make our plight known to the men who run our
country. Led by Janna Ncube, 70 women from the Women's Coalition
marched through Harare to expose the horrific increase in rape.
In the last month in Harare alone 137 girls and women were raped
and when tested it was found that 90% of them were now HIV positive.
It is not known how many of these girls are pregnant as a result
of being raped.
WOZA women were
also due to gather today to attempt to walk together peacefully
in Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. WOZA women were going to
wear white, carry and give out flowers and call for love and peace
in Zimbabwe. Last year when WOZA participants marched on Valentine's
Day scores were arrested and many were imprisoned and abused by
police. This year, less than 24 hours before the event, police in
Harare and Victoria Falls cancelled the permission previously given
for the walk. Police in Bulawayo denied permission for the peaceful
walk of love to go ahead and when WOZA challenged the ruling, the
High Court deferred making judgement saying it was "not urgent".
Jenni Williams and WOZA will not break Zimbabwe's oppressive laws
but will stay at home on Valentine's Day 2004.
I had hoped
to be able to tell women that they could drop off sanitary products
for less fortunate women at a Valentine's Day function in Harare
which did not need police permission, but sadly I cannot. This event
is being held, believe it or not, to raise money to send women to
the UK Chelsea Flower Show. When I asked the organisers if they
would help highlight the desperate plight of other women by asking
their guests to donate cotton wool and sanitary towels, they said
they were exceedingly busy putting the final touches to their event
which includes: "a bring and share stir fry, G&T's and pimms
served by toyboys with roses and a kiss." They did say that if I
printed flyers and delivered them to Harare, they would be prepared
to hand them out at the gate. Unfortunately, like Jenni Williams
and thousands of other women who have lost everything as we speak
out for truth and democracy, the cost of printing flyers or even
half a tank of petrol to get to Harare is a pipe dream for me. The
massive contrast between women being refused police permission to
hand out flowers for love and peace, and toyboys, kisses and pimms
in exchange for air fares to a flower show is the utterly tragic
face of Zimbabwe today. I know how important it is for all of us
in Zimbabwe to do something fun and "normal" in order to stay sane
but I also know that 137 women were raped in Harare last month and
hundreds of thousands are using rags, newspaper and leaves to control
their menstrual flow.
If you would
like to support WOZA or help women and girls in Zimbabwe, please
contact me or Jenni Williams or just post whatever you can spare
from your bathroom cupboard. Nothing will be wasted. It might sound
silly but a bag of cotton wool or packet of sanitary towels will
be a treasured gift to a woman who has to choose between bread and
hygiene.
I continue to
wear my yellow ribbon in support of victims of Zimbabwe's political
mayhem and this week it is for three young women. Viola Ngwenya
(18) was raped by men who call themselves war veterans in Chimanimani
a few days ago and her two friends Spiwe (15) and Melody were sexually
molested that same night. Their pain and horror is shared by most
of Zimbabwe's 6 million women and this letter is for Viola.
Until next week,
happy Valentine's Day, with love, Cathy.
Copyright
Cathy Buckle, 14th February 2004.
Email Cathy
Buckle: cbuckle@mango.zw,
Jenni
Williams at either : jennipr@mweb.co.zw
or wozazimbabwe@yahoo.com
My books on
the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are now
available outside Africa from: orders@africabookcentre.com
; www.africabookcentre.com
; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia
and New Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa:
www.kalahari.net www.exclusivebooks.com
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
