Di Emma Craperi
| In connection with the international women day I have read an article called ‘How Ugandan feminists make themselves heard’ which is about feminists movements in Africa and specifically in Uganda. Samantha Mwesigye, a Ugandan lawyer, used to take offence when people called her a feminist because she thought feminists were rude, loud and mad. But when she decided to testify against her boss who ridiculed and victimised her after she would not have sex with him she received lot of support from Ugandan women. So she began to call herself ‘a feminist’. A new wave of activism is spreading in Uganda but only a minority called themselves ‘feminist’ and politics is almost exclusively male. Women report that sexism starts from the high school age: one was trained to sit and talk “like a woman”. Another problem is that the state is both priggish and prurient. It orders female civil servants not to wear short skirts. But it also organised a “Miss Curvy” beauty contest to entice foreign tourists. if naked photos of a woman are found online is arrested and she hasn’t any protection. Social conservatism divides also the women’s movement, any campaigners describe themselves as “gender advocates” rather than feminists, because they reject permissiveness on issues such as abortion. it is therefore important to know that there are places in the world where rights that we take for granted have not yet been conquered |
