Parlimentarian in Zimbabwe actually said, 'Women are inferior to men!"
Dag. Women's organizations in Zimbabwe are rightfully pissed off at comments made by Timothy Mubhawu at a debate in front of the national assembly.
During debate on the Domestic Violence Bill, Timothy Mubhawu, member of parliament (MP) for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told parliament: "I stand here representing God the Almighty. Women are not equal to men. This is a dangerous bill, and let it be known in Zimbabwe that the rights, privileges and status of men are gone." His remarks in the wake of disclosure by gender and women's affairs minister Oppah Muchinguri that over 60 percent of all murder cases in Zimbabwe were linked to domestic violence, sparked spontaneous protests.
Yes passing a bill that would criminalize the death of women through domestic violence is dangerous. WTF?
But Women's Coalition is not hearing all that.
Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF government rarely permits demonstrations, but more than 200 people from the Women's Coalition, an umbrella body for 35 women's organisations, protested outside parliament in the presence of police, petitioning MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai to ensure that Mubhawu apologised for his remarks. The ZANU-PF women's league joined the protest."This Bill seeks to bring harmony in the home, and if parliament is not going to protect women and children, who will? Women are the majority of the voters and we therefore feel betrayed," the coalition said in a statement.
via Reuters Alertnet.
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Making no excuses for Mr Mubhawu, but, but, but ...
It's very, very hard to see the ZANU-PF as standard bearers for women's rights either. Economic collapse, AIDS and mass starvation are feminist issues, and the Minister's claim that 'over 60 percent of all murder cases in Zimbabwe were linked to domestic violence' is a flat out lie. The Zimbabwe police force is a thug-squad with other priorities than keeping such statistics.
This is opinion (I don't follow these situations as closely as I did when I was actively involved) but I think there are far more pressing feminist issues in Zimbabwe than can be solved by a law that is unlikely to be enforced, or by applying pressure to an opposition group that barely took part in the last election. For example, Zimbabwe's women are at the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in Africa (and the ruling ZANU-PF has restricted the activities of international organizations in Zimbabwe).
None of which excuses Mr. Mubhawu, but a full reckoning of the situation in Zimbabwe needs to look beyond Hansard.
Wow. I saw this coming, apparently.