"Eyes on Zimbabwe," is a project of the Open Society Institute designed to raise awareness of the crisis in Zimbabwe. In anticipation of the country's 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, we are launching a blog/social networking outreach program intended to inform and involve as many people around the world as possible about the inevitable violence and corruption surrounding the vote.

Police on Tuesday severely assaulted and injured more than 30 members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) political pressure group for attempting to march to Parliament to protest against constitutional reforms agreed between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition last month.

Zimbabwe will not allow foreigners to own broadcasting stations but could relax rules and licence locals who have been battling to meet stringent requirements, the information minister said on Monday. "On the issue of ownership we cannot compromise," Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu told a committee of lawmakers.

Disabled people in Zimbabwe are more likely to experience poverty and discrimination due to social and cultural norms as well as problems with accessing health, education and employment. Legislation makes no provision for affirmative action or positive discrimination and policies remain vague or unenforced. Where rights have been enshrined by law, professionals in health and education, employers and disabled people themselves remain largely unaware of what these are.

38 families from Amaveni in KweKwe were last week left homeless after council officials from the town, accompanied by heavily armed police officers, used sledgehammers to knock down their homes. The latest crackdown against ‘illegal’ housing by the Zanu-PF led council in the town has met with harsh condemnation from the local MDC MP Blessing Chebundo, who described it as ‘heartless’ and politically motivated.

Dear Friends of Lucia

An injustice to one is an injustice to all of us.
You strike a woman. You strike a rock.

'I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is, I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.' Rebecca West, Suffragist, 1913.

What has Lucia not been through? She has survived several March 11ths. She has survived the horrors of Zanu PF's tyranny and brutality. She has been a source of our inspiration our leader, the voice of reason that has refused to be cowed out of the peoples struggle. She has remained consistent and steadfast that people and especially marginalised women are who this struggle is all about and for. Lucia is also the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, first Vice President and the regional President of the Southern African Trade Union Council.

As part of the ongoing campaign by many of us who understand the unfortunate removal of Lucia Matibenga from the national chairpersonship of the MDC Women's Assembly, we have formed the 'Friends of Lucia Campaign.' If you believe in fairness and justice you can be one of us.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has set the date for the illegal women's congress to be held on the 28th of October. While Mai Mati or Lucy has received nominations and overwhelming support from the grassroots in the party, going into that election without her support base firstly knowing how flawed the process of removing her was, and secondly why she is constantly attacked by MDC patriarchs, would be a gross omission on our part.

Why are they so frightened of Lucia?

Lucia will not benefit from silent support, those who claim to be her friends have to say, enough is enough. Democracy in the MDC will not benefit from silent solidarity. The assault on the Women's Assembly chair should be viewed within the broader context of women's liberation and emancipation.

Comrades in South Africa have started to write in support of the MDC women's struggle, well done to Philile the South African daughter of the slain anti-apartheid activist Siphethelo Mbokazi. Others have sent in heart warming e-mails and text messages. We know we are not alone.

How can you help?

We believe if everyone is encouraged to use the tools and resources within their means, we can run a very effective campaign. To demand the respect for women like Mai Mati. Your solidarity costs nothing just be principled.
What are the objectives of this campaign. Put the women's agenda back on the agenda. Link up, nationally, regionally and internationally, with other activists, feminists, politicians who share the same aspirations as the female politicians in Zimbabwe.

. Campaign that women in politics be recognised as grown adults.
. Demand their rightful place in leadership not as a favour but a right.
. Invigorate activists who have endured the backlash from both the patriarchy in their midst and the Robert Mugabe dictatorship.
. Campaign for an end to all forms of violence against women in politics and Zimbabwe at large. Especially the attack on female politician's sexuality.
. Build solidarity with like minded men who are not threatened by what Zimbabwean female politicians stand for.

Using data from a 2004 household-based survey of children, this paper examines differences between boys and girls in self reports of food insecurity in Zimbabwe. Previous studies have taken only the views of the household head into consideration in categorizing the food insecurity status of the household. By so doing, the possibilities of differential experiences of food insecurity by individual household members were ignored.

While the Zimbabwean crisis is deepening, the continued focus on the description of the crisis at the expense of finding solutions to it has been unhelpful, writes Trevor Ncube. That the main protagonists in the crisis have dug themselves into entrenched positions from which they are unwilling or incapable of extricating themselves also is unhelpful.

The MDC has demanded compensation from the Robert Mugabe regime now that terrorism charges have been dropped against dozens of activists who spent nearly four months in custody. Supporters of the opposition party were rounded up in raids in March when the police claimed to have thwarted plans for a campaign of petrol-bombings. The arrests came days after security forces broke up a planned opposition rally and assaulted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of supporters and party officials.

At a time when the world is largely embroiled in conflicts, triggering human catastrophes of alarming proportions, a myriad of lights-of-hope are flickering in various corners of the planet in search for peace and stability. One such light is currently flickering in Harare through a child-oriented project titled “Peace In Our Communities”, 22 September to 14 October 2007, at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43666-remove-RM.jpg“The democratic forces in Zimbabwe will not be sincere if we conclude that the problem of women is the same as that of men. The same stereotypes that should have been buried with past generations are rekindling and this is not an allegation but an honest observation.” Chipo Mutuma warns that unless women’s rights are integrated into all aspects of society in the post-conflict era, “freedom will have to wait for another day”

THE challenge that has affected black people at large and Africans in particular has always been that of gender equity. Like the wording itself, the question of gender has belonged to varying morphology or should I say the various interpretations of that morphology. Words such as gender streamlining, gender sensitivity etc have been used as the rallying call for the fight for the advancement of women in a particular society.

Yet the struggle for the advancement of women has historically and unfortunately been hosted in other more pronounced often generic struggles for emancipation. Thus historically the universal suffrage movement tended to give effect to the rights of the commoner to vote and yet in so doing it became a precursor to the right to be extended to women as well.

Similarly the rights of black women in America in the 1960s found itself concealed if not cocooned or even totally eclipsed in the black consciousness movement of that time which in essence was the debate for the rights of black men to be accepted as equals in the American society……in itself largely androcism and not feministic.

Although women like Rosa Parks became the immediate and posterior symbolism of the struggles of that time her heroism was within the fighting for the generic rights of all black people. Her heroic figure translated later into the change of belief among black American males that black women were in fact capable of equalling them in several spheres of life. Well it came much late in the day though as women in black communities would still be subjected to violence even as America was opening up to Afro-Americans.

Similarly in the Zimbabwean context we have women who have come to symbolise heroic struggles against oppression. Mbuya Nehanda easily comes to mind and so other than iconic figures such as the late Pedzisai Mazorodze, Sally Mugabe, Joice Mujuru, Grace Kwinjeh, Margaret Dongo and others. Their roles mainly were on an agenda that sought to bring change to the entire community rather than one section.

Yet in some instances people often forget to accommodate the other views that they may represent; and to me this is where the feminist agenda comes in. On so many occasions I have had the chance to speak to my cousin Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa on how the issue of women is being tackled in the transitional period between now and the new Zimbabwe given that he is senior in the Movement for Democratic Change.

One of the issues we have touched on is the danger that these issues can easily be diluted or totally forgotten in negotiations as people tend to look specifically at broad themes such as in Zimbabwe's case land; citizenship rights, the economy etc all of which are important but are still not free from the inherent risk that if they do not address the pieces within they will explode with unfulfilled yet important constituent issues that were not addressed on time.

I have two cases in point. The Chilean case and the Iranian case, both of which represent strong women participation during the revolutions yet after the revolution women found themselves worse off than they were during the dictatorships. In Iran women were better during the time of the Shah as he was opening up the space for genuine participation of Iranian women in the governance of the country.

Ironically it was Iranian women who kick-started the revolution that expelled the Shah but as soon as the Islamic Revolution succeeded they found themselves having to operate within the confines of Sharia law that allows them to be killed for adultery while the adulterous man only has to make do with a little canning. It is total injustice and bad salaries for heroes! Similarly I am not so sure whether the issue of women was ever discussed at the Lancaster House Conference.

The delegates were predominantly male and the women cadres were in fact represented by the late Josiah Magama Tongogara for ZANLA and Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa for ZIPRA. Worse still ZANU's Women's Wing was a very late phenomenon with the effect that its voice may not have been heard at that time. Issues that purely affected women as represented by cadres and those in war zones were not addressed and the chimbwidos who had ended up carrying unwanted babies from the struggle were left alone, abandoned in a society that quickly developed new stereotypes for women who had participated in the war.

Wearing jeans and trousers for the first time in predominantly black communities they were prostitutes first and foremost and parents discouraged their sons from having affairs with ex-combatants, a problem that later faced Umkhonto we Sizwe women in South Africa in 1994. Those who had babies were worse off as they did not know their babies' fathers. Confined to the unshakable stereotypes of an unforgiving society they found themselves filling beer-halls as prostitutes as they could not get jobs and unlike their male counterparts it was very difficult for one to be employed in the then integrating army or police force if you were a mother.

These stereotypes continue even in this era. The democratic forces in Zimbabwe will not be sincere if we conclude that the problem of women is the same as that of men. The same stereotypes that should have been buried with past generations are rekindling and this is not an allegation but an honest observation. For example it is people's mentalities that those girls and women who are active in politics and Civil society in Zimbabwe and at the Vigil and MDC UK and Ireland here in the UK are loose yet this is an unfortunate stereotype.

We will need an intervention from the Party that recognises this fact and approach issues of equity within this sphere of thinking. One hopes that the leadership of women in the Party will be able to consult widely to get input and then transform that into any post-conflict arrangement that shall emerge through whatever processes. The feeling that one has is that the legacy of the MDC should be that almost every issue was tackled.

This calls us to action and address as a matter of urgency unfortunate abuses that are going on in Zimbabwe as the social fabric falls apart, cases of women who are abandoned by husbands who flee to seek greener pastures but in most cases end up founding other families, cases of daughters who are being sacrificed by families seeking to survive the current scourge of economic hardships and all other related issues.

My feeling is that these things need to be discussed now and not tomorrow; an approach is needed that sets the tone for the future and realistic development of a truly equitable Zimbabwean society which has as its focus the total development of both men and women. Unless this is done it is my feeling that this current transition will be incomplete and total freedom will have to wait for another day.

* Chipo Mutuma is the secretary for the MDC UK and Ireland Women's Branch. She is writes in her own capactity. Email|: chipomutuma at yahoo dot co dot uk

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Link to Remove Robert Mugabe Campaign -

Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and AIDS awards 200: Call for nominations Individuals and organizations who have excelled in their contributions to mitigate HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe have a chance to win awards at the annual Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and AIDS Awards ceremony to be held in Harare on November 29th 2007.

Zimbabwe's economic woes have taken their toll on Thembelihle House, (meaning 'Good Hope' in Ndebele) an HIV and AIDS nursing home in Mpopoma, a high-density suburb in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, but the severe water shortage has been even more crippling. "This is the ninth straight day that we have gone without [running] water," Priscilla MacIsaac, Thembelihle's sister-in-charge, told IRIN/PlusNews. "It makes us feel so helpless."

Dire shortages of such essentials as electricity and water are forcing Zimbabweans living with HIV/AIDS to combat the country's hardships with new and novel approaches. According to the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 18.1 percent of the population of about 11.5 million are infected with HIV - the sixth highest prevalence in the world.

The Government has conceded to the demands made by Zimbabweans to amend the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Since its inception in 2000, POSA has been used by the ruling party to infringe on the fundamental right to freedom of association, and has been selectively applied to prohibit opposition party rallies and civic organization meetings. This has been viewed as an act of blatant disregard to the right to freedom of expression and association within a democratic society.

Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will not take part in national elections next year if the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe continues political "repression" in the country. "There is no point in participating in repressive elections if the environment is not conducive," the Movement Democraticfor Democratic Change leader told supporters. But he said it was important to talk to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party "to create a free and fair election environment in this country" and denied allegations he had betrayed MDC supporters by making compromises with the ruling party.

This report by Adam Smith International sets out an ambitious 100 Day Agenda for a new Zimbabwean Government. Although it is not known when a new Government will take office or what kind of government this will be, the paper argues that any new Government will face a host of extremely severe problems that have resulted from the policies pursued by the government of Robert Mugabe. In order to address these problems, it argues that Zimbabwe will need a clear plan , as well as advice and assistance from the international community.

Reporters Without Borders have strongly condemned the action of the Zimbabwean intelligence services in compiling a blacklist of at least 15 journalists working for independent news media who are to be subjected to "strict surveillance" and other unspecified "measures" in the run-up to next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

On Monday over 200 Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Men of Zimbabwe Arise activists marched through the city of Bulawayo. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams said representatives from Harare, Mutare, Masvingo and rural Insiza joined local members to demand ‘peace’ and an end to police harassment from the brutal regime. The group of singing protestors marched from near St Mary's Cathedral, pausing to send messages of solidarity to Bishop Pius Ncube, whose courageous outspokenness against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe has often made him a target of the State.

On September 29 plain-clothes police stormed the backstage area at ‘Theatre in the Park’ after a performance of ‘The Final Push,’ a new play by Daniel Maphosa, and arrested actors Sylvanos Mudzvova and Anthony Tongani. James Jemwa, an independent journalist who was filming the play, was also arrested when he questioned the police as to why the actors were being detained. The 3 were taken to a truck and their whereabouts were not known until Monday. Theatre producer Daves Guzha said the actors were held at Harare police headquarters and were then released on Tuesday.