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Precious Manomano

Herald Reporter

Female inmates from across the country yesterday joined the rest of the nation in commemorating International Women’s Day at Chikurubi Prison, where calls to empower female prisoners for life after being released were made so that they don’t struggle back in society.

The day ran under the global theme, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 World”. Local celebrations were held under the theme, “Choose to challenge”.

Zimbabwe Female Open Prison Foundation Trust (ZFOPF), resource mobilisation committee chairperson, Mrs Tsitsi Sekeramayi, said: “On this day, we celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women, their courage and significant determination in contributing to the country’s well-being and it is also a day to reflect on the progress made in the advancement of women’s issues.

“It is good to empower female prisoners so that they will not struggle to make ends meet when they get back into the society and also cases of gender-based violence will be minimised.”

ZFOPF board chairperson Mrs Roselyn Charehwa said gender-based violence perpetrated by men on women was responsible for mental cases experienced by women.

A female inmate, Rutendo Chawarima, said she was in an abusive marriage and was incarcerated after being charged with attempting to murder her husband.

Female inmates dance during the commemorations yesterday.— Pictures: Memory Mangombe

“I poured boiling cooking oil on him as a way of revenge because I was suffering and he abused me almost every day,” said Chawarima.

Another inmate, Tendai Chidyausiku, said she was incarcerated after being involved in a robbery that involved two other men who escaped.

“Men are very clever, they escaped and I was caught and will serve eight years in prison alone but we shared the loot,” said Chidyausiku.

Meanwhile, LEAD president Ms Linda Masarira yesterday urged women to confront patriarchal dominance that has resulted in women playing second fiddle to their male counterparts. She said in Zimbabwe, women constitute about 54 percent of the estimated 14 million population people and in the 2018 harmonised elections, only 1 176 out of 5 620 women were nominated to run for local government council seats but only 261 were elected across the 1 958 wards.

“This is a real cause of concern as it shows how disconnected women are from the day to day runnings of their communities. Development happens at ward level, if we had more women in council, we would probably not be having water challenges all over Zimbabwe and poor service delivery because women get the job done,” she said.

Ms Masarira called on women to be bold for change, push for gender equality in all levels of governance at the workplace, in the community and in social spaces.

She also implored parliament to ensure there was adequate electoral reform to address women representation issues, gender delimitation of constituencies and strict sanctions for hate speech and politically motivated violence towards women.

International Women’s Day is a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, as well as a call to action for accelerating gender parity.