admin
THE abuse of human rights, especially those of women and girls, under the guise of tradition and religious strictures is an age-old challenge that has proven to be as stubborn to eradicate as our sense of entitlement to oppress the weak claiming we are doing it for their own good.
We need new heroes, that can show us the way and demonstrably usher us into an era of respect for human rights, especially the rights of women and girl children.
It is quite refreshing that the heroes in this fight are emerging from the traditional leadership, the supposed custodians of tradition, who are unshackling their communities from the girders of oppressive customs to ensure the enjoyment of constitutional rights by all, regardless of their supposed societal gender roles.
Elsewhere in this edition we carry the story of a woman from Bikita who forced her daughter-in-law into a weird sex arrangement in which she drafted a roster for her to sleep with her husband and her husbanda��s younger brother after suspecting that the husband was impotent.
We would like to applaud the chief who ruled that the practice was archaic and fined the mother-in-law four head of cattle. The cattle, it is said, would be handed over to the brave daughter-in-law.
In passing the sentence, Chief Mupwakwa reportedly took into consideration the fact that by forcing her daughter-in-law to sleep with her brother-in-law, the mother-in-law was apparently violating her fundamental rights as a woman. He also condemned her actions as primitive practice not in line with the Governmenta��s efforts to end the violation of womena��s rights.
It is reported that the husband had also agreed at the instigation of his mother who told him that it was the only way he would become a father.
It is our view that traditional leaders should play their part in educating communities on areas of conflict between tradition and modern law and that where peoplea��s rights are muzzled they should step in just like the chief in Bikita did.
Some of the traditional leaders would have shied away from the case and referred it back to the family setup to resolve the matter. We applaud the chief for standing by his vulnerable subject who fought to assert her rights against a whole family that wanted her to capitulate to their demands to attempt to populate their clan in a strange way.
We believe rights groups, womena��s rights organisations can learn a lot from the courage shown by the woman who took her case to the chiefa��s court for justice to take its course. She is a hero.
She is a hero in her own community where she will inspire a lot of women who are oppressed to take charge of their destiny and not baulk at challenges. She is a hero, too, in the nation of Zimbabwe, where her story shall be used to show how tradition and constitutionalism can co-exist and how traditional systems can adapt to changing demands of a modern society. .
Online Reporter