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Tendai Rupapa in TEHRAN, Iran

First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa says her charity arm, Angel of Hope Foundation, is ready to work with sister organisations and corporates in Iran to traverse the country advocating programmes that help educate women to realise their empowerment goals.

She made the remarks during an interface with Iranian Vice President for Family and Women Affairs Dr Ensieh Khazali and her delegation comprising women in the private and public sector.

Dr Mnangagwa is in Iran at the invitation of the Islamic State’s First Lady, Dr Jamileh Alamolhoda.

To kick-start proceedings, Dr Khazali introduced her delegation to Dr Mnangagwa and said she felt honoured to meet her.

“In the name of God, first and foremost madam, First Lady of Zimbabwe it is an honour to have you here. Fortunately, we had very good meetings with presidents of universities and the First Lady of the Islamic Republic of Iran and we addressed very important issues. 

“Today, I have asked my friends and colleagues including those from my department to be here and discuss different issues with you so that we have a concrete outcome and agreement on the empowerment of women and the girl child,” she said. 

Dr Mnangagwa expressed gratitude to her hosts for inviting her and for the hospitality she and her delegation are receiving from the government of Iran. 

She chronicled the various interventions she was doing countrywide to ease the plight of vulnerable members of the community.

“As First Lady of Zimbabwe, I am working flat out to improve the lives of our women and the girl child. I am encouraging women to work hard and lead the way they want their families to go. All women in my country have taken on board the advocacy and training that I am imparting to them through my foundation.

“Given the relationship between the two countries, as women we should have strong ties amongst ourselves and have exchange programmes of training and empowering these vulnerable groups. 

“Iran is advanced, so I wish my people in Zimbabwe to receive the knowledge and skills from you through the good relations between the two countries. 

“In our country we say ‘if you educate a woman, you have educated the whole nation’ because women are hard workers, women want to see results, women don’t leave their children behind. I am in the process of training young children from the tender age for them to know that if you are a girl and becoming a woman, how do you look after yourself? How do you dress? How do you communicate?” she said.

Amai Mnangagwa said she was empowering women and intended to ensure they exercised financial discipline.

“Yes, they are doing well, but we are saying we need to see more projects coming out from the projects I am initiating for them. They should be self-disciplined when it comes to managing their finances.

“Last night when I went for dinner which was hosted in my honour, I saw some beautiful hand-woven carpets done by women from here. By working together as women, they are creating relationships and this brings unity and development in communities. So those good working relations among themselves are very important,” she said.

Deputy Vice President for strategic programming in the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs, Dr Leila Zaferanchi spoke on the status of women in Iran and their experiences.

“We have women who have been successful in academics, economics and political matters. We still have a long way to go to reach the optimum level as women. I believe that the experience over the years in some countries, particularly our country can help our two countries to have synergies,” she said.

One of the woman Dr Sayyedeh Fatemeh Mousavi spoke on the issue of oppressive sanctions that have been slapped on Iran and Zimbabwe and how they were affecting women.

“These sanctions have mostly affected the institution of families. In my personal opinion, it is the women and children who suffer the brunt more. The sanctions heavily affect them,” she said.

One of the women said she was willing to help Zimbabwe in the fields of designing, manufacturing and producing products which women are interested in.

“We can have workshops to help your women who produce goods and source markets for them to export their finished products,” she said.

“We can assist them through advanced equipment to use during value edition. We should actually find ways to work together. We need to help women in different areas and identify social harms women go through. 

“They should be self-sufficient hence the need to create safe working environments for them. We are happy that you are doing a lot in Zimbabwe through your foundation to protect and empower women.” 

Mrs Chipo Zishiri from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (department of agricultural and rural development advisory services), who is part of the First Lady’s delegation, told the Iranians that women in Zimbabwe were very much involved in agriculture.

“Women in Zimbabwe are very much involved in agriculture and they are doing great in that field. They have so much success stories to tell. She is working with different women in the field of agriculture whom they are helping including former ladies of the night so that they live normal lives. 

They, however, have a challenge where they are relying only on rainfall, but due to climate change they are some erratic rains so there is need for irrigation systems to be set,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa weighed in, giving a detailed account of what she was personally doing at her Angel of Hope Foundation’s farm to boost production. 

“We have embarked on horticulture at the Angel of Hope Foundation farm. I want to lead by example and show women that we can also do it and be involved in the agriculture sector. 

“I want to express my readiness in working with sister organisations and corporates to capacitate the foundation and help our women and youths so that we achieve goals,” she said.

Ms Mantissa Mazoyo, from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development department of agricultural engineering mechanisation and rural development said Zimbabwean women were hard working and produced crops and livestock in different agro-ecological regions.

“Our statistics show that women have high production per unit area than men. So in terms of cropping, our country has been affected by climate change and variability and so in terms of production I see an opportunity between Iran and Zimbabwe in areas of climate-proofed technologies, in areas of crop varieties which are drought-tolerant so that we can increase production and also animal livestock species that are compatible with our environment and also in areas of irrigation like drip irrigation to counter the effects of climate change,” she said.

Iranian businesswomen also shared their success stories.

Dr Mahnaz Arablou, a businesswoman, said she has companies in many countries.

“I have 28 years experience in export. I have one of the top end companies teaching women skills in different areas. I have been mentoring and educating women. 

“We also export Iranian traditional medicines to other countries, this too can be done in Zimbabwe after training women there how to produce traditional medicines and provide with necessary equipment and machinery to be able to extract the medicine. 

“Zimbabwe and Iran are under sanctions and importing medicines might be difficult and expensive but if we learn to make ours, we will succeed. We can have more synergies with Zimbabwe,” she said. 

Similar sentiments were echoed by Ms Raziyeh Jalili, a gold smith, who won a gold medal in jewellery designing at international level. 

“I have taken part in international platforms in jewellery making. I am the first woman to win this medal because I wanted to show my fellow Iranian women that they can do it. I want to transfer my skills to my fellow women in Zimbabwe. 

“We can teach and educate young people. Skills training is important for women to be self-sufficient. We will definitely support our friends in Zimbabwe. There is great potential in Zimbabwe. 

“We can also source equipment for women in Zimbabwe for exploration of gold so that after teaching them value addition they can export and sustain themselves. We are ready to cooperate with Zimbabwe,” she said. 

Among the women was Mrs Atefeh Musuvi, who manufactures equipment to detect climate change and said she was willing to set up a plant in Zimbabwe.

“We can set a plant in Zimbabwe and set up satellite so we can see your weather and build models to predict the frequent weather patterns so that the women in agriculture can plan their agriculture farming based on these patterns since rainfall in Zimbabwe is erratic,” she said. 

 “We are in IT and we have the best safety software products that can assist women in various areas considering that the world is going digital.”