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Salute the women of Zimbabwe
Selvan Chetty
August 10, 2004

In South Africa we are celebrating Women’s Day – a time when we should praise and recognise the efforts women make in raising families, earning a living and supporting the functions of society - often run predominantly by men.

The same and so much more is true for the women of Zimbabwe. Not only do they deal with the daily hardships of finding enough calories to keep their children alive, but they live without the rule of law as we understand it. Women, usually the family’s carers, are constantly in political, social and economic crisis.

As we closely monitor the developments in Zimbabwe, we are aware of brave women battling to restore democracy - groups like WOZA, women’s church groups, women in the trade unions, and outstanding women in the minefield of Zimbabwe’s deteriorating justice system and the pivotal role they play in Zimbabwe's NGO sector.

In the face of the onslaught from the various security forces and the youth militia, Zimbabwe’s women struggle for survival, and take on ever more challenges, in both informal and formal sectors, on the land, in the classrooms, in the wards of barely functioning hospitals.

We offer our thoughts to the unrecorded numbers of women who are victims of rape in Zimbabwe, and those who are arrested every time they try to challenge the status quo.

Zimbabweans, for economic and political reasons are the newest mass migrant labourers in southern Africa. Untold numbers of Zimbabwe’s mothers, wives, sisters and daughters are without their menfolk who are forced by the economic crisis, to work in Botswana and South Africa, to support their families at home.These women face the realities of a collapsing state infrastructure in both urban and rural areas and the ever diminishing social services.

Today we pay tribute and give thanks to women all over the world. And in our region, particularly, we salute Zimbabwe’s women who were until quite recently the most educated and socially secure in the sub continent, but are now among the most vulnerable.

Together we can bring about change and embrace a new, democratic Zimbabwe – the one the people fought for so hard, not the one they endure today.

The Solidarity Peace Trust salutes the brave women of Zimbabwe, and indeed the world over, for being defenders of the rights of your children, your families and the rights of all peace loving citizens of this world.

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