Male MPs Must Apologise

June 25, 2006 – (Zimbabwe Standard) THE Women's Coalition is deeply concerned by the statement that "single female MPs should get married", made by the Honourable MP of Mabvuku Timothy Mubhawu to female members of Parliament as highlighted recently in the media.

At a time when women are working hard and tirelessly to be in decision-making positions they are being forced back to domestication, which in the past has achieved very little for them. Analysed from a satirical, symbolic and ironic point of view this and other statements coming from male policy makers have serious implications for them in the near future.

At the moment we are grappling with the reality that there is no gender equality in all socio-economic spheres of life and this one is but another big hurdle in Zimbabwe. Women in and outside Parliament are not married for various reasons chief among them are, loss of husbands through death, domestic violence, childhood rape, career choices and activism and fear of risk of contracting HIV and AIDS in marriages. Statistics show that 85% of married women who get HIV and AIDS are infected by their husbands and 60% of the adults infected by HIV and AIDS are women.

There are also a number of men in and outside Parliament who are not married for the same reasons and gender sensitive female MPs have never interrogated them in public for their marital status because being married or single is all about choices.
When a legislator directs that single women MPs get married in a respectable House like Parliament one wonders what he wants to achieve. The women and men who voted these MPs into power are fully aware that they are single and in no way desperate for any partnerships but for political activism and careers.

The male MP may have withdrawn his statement but not his negative attitude towards women. This he has to do urgently and publicly and the Women's Coalition is organising so that he meets with women activists to find out what the motive behind the statement is and was. The physical, sexual, verbal abuse perpetrated against female MPs or any woman in Zimbabwe regardless of political affiliation is abuse to all Zimbabwean women.

The Women's Coalition feels strongly that female MPs need support in and outside Parliament as issues they are bringing to Parliament on rape, domestic violence and gender-based violence affect the basic unit of any society which is the family. Male MP's have families and they stand to directly benefit from the Domestic Violence Bill, proposed Child Sexual Offences Bill and any legislation protecting women and girls from gender-based violence. The laws protecting women and girls in Zimbabwe equally protect their own wives, girl friends, daughters, aunts and grandmothers.

Zimbabwe like the rest of the world is moving towards the 21st century and attainment of the Millenium Development Goal number three on Gender Equality needs commitment from policy makers. The Women's Coalition hopes male MPs do something about verbal abuse of women in Parliament as this has serious effects on the women's self esteem.

If male MPs do not openly and publicly condemn the MP's statement, women in Zimbabwe will assume that they are not gender sensitive and therefore ensure the next Parliament is exactly the opposite of the current one in terms of gender composition.
Zimbabwean women have endured gender stereotyping, physical, sexual and emotional abuse for quite a long time and they will have none of it anymore.

The Women's Coalition is grateful to the media for covering the utterances by the MP for Mabvuku and for demonstrating their commitment to women's empowerment. Such support for the women's cause a lot of times goes unnoticed. We hope that they continue with their efforts to promote gender equality and equity. The media has of late named and shamed rapists, polygamists, wife murderers and all those who abuse women and girls.

This has gone a long way in promoting women's rights and minimised deaths, suicides, diseases and frustration of women in key decision-making positions in particular and all women in general. Women's Coalition hopes that the media will continue its enlightened approach on gender activism while reporting on women and girl issues in an objective and gender sensitive manner in order to minimise vulnerability of women and girls to abuse.

Finally we hope to meet with the male MP so that he further clarifies to women why marriage on the part of female MPs and not their male counterparts should be mandatory.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200606260199.html