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Zimbabwe's period politics, women see red
Sharon Njobo, Zimbabwejournalists.com
March 21, 2006

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?art_id=233&cat=5

THE ruling Zanu PF government has picked cotton wool, sanitary towels and tampons as the latest weapon of choice to punish Zimbabwe’s poverty-battered population. Sadly, in this battle over feminine hygiene, the bleeding is not on the battleground, but in Zimbabwe’s schools, rural areas, city streets and on farms.

This latest battle pits the Zimbabwe Union of Trade Unions (ZCTU) attempting to bring in a consignment of donated sanitary towels and the government’s department of customs, which says the feminine hygiene products have to be quality-tested to determine if they should be allowed into the country duty-free.

"We can’t fight against nature, periods are like oxygen. You can’t tell your periods to go away because you have no pads," said a furious Ntombiyomusa Ncube in Toronto, Canada.

Ncube said the attitude being demonstrated by the government confirmed that the ruling party did not recognize the status of women.

"I am very furious because the vice-president is a woman and she should understand how important pads are for women’s dignity and health," she said.

The sanitary towels donated from England and South Africa are the result of passionate pleas by Zimbabwe’s women who can no longer afford the highly priced products.

The ZCTU gave birth to Zimbabwe’s first-ever formidable opposition party some six years ago, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Evidently, President Robert Mugabe’s government has not forgiven the trade unionists.

An exiled Zimbabwean human rights activist disagrees that the government could be using the pads to fight the ZCTU, saying humanitarian donations have always had a problem being cleared through customs over the years.

She said sewing machines, schools supplies and computers donated to be used by humanitarian agencies or to be distributed free of charge have been held on countless times by the department of customs.

"Donations have always been held by customs, you might think that being a crisis situation they (government) would be more sensitive," she said.

She said Zimbabwe’s female vice-president Joyce Mujuru would not feel any pressure to help the women because she did not get to her position on the women’s vote.

"She (Mujuru) is not there because of the women so she will not serve the women’s interest."

It has been three years since the women launched the campaign to highlight their menstrual woes after sanitary pads disappeared from store shelves. The shortage was caused by the closure of firms and unavailability of foreign currency to import the products.

So messy was the cotton wool, pads and tampons shortage that even Zimbabwe’s parliament, dominated by the traditional males from the ruling Zanu PF was forced to table a motion and debate this taboo subject.

The Minister of Finance, Hebert Murerwa has been presented with a petition signed by thousands of men and women. Murerwa promised that the government would reduce the duty on sanitary-ware from 40% to 20%. The promised reduction was neither referred to during the last multi-trillion dollar budget nor has it been implemented to date.

The ministry of education also promised to distribute sanitary ware to young girls in schools, but several months later, the distribution is yet to begin. The bleeding Zimbabwean economy, tottering from an inflation rate of nearly 800%, can ill afford to subsidize, let alone distribute free of charge sanitary-ware for girls and women.

"Sanitary ware, in the form of cotton wool, pads and tampons is now available on the local market. However the majority of women and girls cannot afford to purchase it due to high costs and low incomes," Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) said in a recent statement.

Increased teen prostitution is among the vices being bred by the shortages.

"Social risk factors such as poverty increases the vulnerability of women and girls as they find themselves offering sexual favours in exchange for food and other basic items including sanitary ware," ZWRCN elaborated.

Some gains being made to increase enrolment of girls in secondary schools are being eroded as the girls now prefer to stay home from school or extra curricular activities when they have their periods.

While women fear that the old rags they use to contain menstrual flow are not sterile enough to prevent infection, Zimbabwe’s junior information minister Bright Matonga sums up the government’s position in a recent BBC interview, "The Zimbabwe government won't sit back and let women suffer. We care about our women."

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