International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day 2017 message.

As we commemorate International Women's Day,  let's leverage on the opportunity it presents to have individuals and institutions subscribe to the women's struggle by respecting, promoting, protecting and ensuring progressive realization of women's rights! This should reflect in our daily lives, prior to, during and post the commemoration.

Today we join hands with all the women in the world in celebrating International Women's day. On this day I call upon government, civil society, women organizations, media, individual men, women, girls and boys to unite in addressing the global pandemic of violence against women and girls.

Violence against women is extreme and has manifestations of pervasive discrimination against women. A research recently carried out by Zimbabwe demographics health survey shows that 1 in 3 women is assaulted and coerced into sexual activities.

Hundreds of women are trafficked year in and year out and are sexually exploited. Most victims suffer in silence with little or no access to justice care,or support. In 2016, we worked tirelessly to support and bring back the human trafficking survivors who faced sexual harassment in Kuwait.

As Zimbabweans we can do better to protect women and prevent this pervasive human rights violations.
It is a collective effort to seize the opportunity presented by this Day in collaboration with men to denounce and fight against practices that undermine women's participation in politics and national platforms.

We lobby to explore and institutionalise varied and flexible gender roles on men and women as means of undermining gender stereotypes in political and voluntary organizations and the society.

Linda Tsungirirai Masarira
Zimbabwe Women In Politics Alliance