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Lived Realities Under Traditional Authorities

Lived Realities Under Traditional Authorities
Published date: 
28 May 2012
Government should revise the Traditional Courts Bill, which activists argue is promoting patriarchal practices in rural areas and also discrimination against women. The Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), a KwaZulu-Natal NGO, has in the course of its work with more than 50 000 rural women extensively documented the harsh realities of rural lives under the unaccountable authority of traditional leaders and their institutions of power.

In a district that cannot be named for fear of reprisal the traditional leader unilaterally controls community resources and access to land. In most instances, where there are projects that rural women have initiated without him, for example a sewing machines project, he tries to undermine the projects and threatens to remove the resources needed for the project, e.g. sewing machines. His ‘justification’: he feels like he has no control over the project and the money involved.

At amaHlubi, RWM is working with an elderly woman who is a widow living alone. Her only source of income is the state social grant. She compliments the grant by growing food in her garden. Cattle from neighbouring eMangweni kept destroying her food garden. In trying to support her, we encouraged her to report the matter to the eMangweni traditional court. She approached the eMangweni traditional court, which is about 10 kilometres from her home, but was sent away because the court “does not speak to a woman”. The court demanded that she be represented by a man. As she does not have a man in her home she cannot return to the court and has stopped growing food in her garden. As RWM, we regard this as an example of the feminisation of poverty

Congress Sends Equal Pay Bill to Obama

Published date: 
27 Jan 2009
The bill is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said a person must file a discrimination claim within 180 days of an employer's decision to pay a worker less based on gender, even if the worker is unaware of the discrimination.

With Obama In Power, Whitehouse.gov Now Backs Abortion Rights, ‘Gay Rights’

Published date: 
29 Jan 2009
"President Obama campaigned as a social liberal, and—if his website is any indication—he intends to deliver on several controversial issues, from supporting same-sex civil unions and the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act to overturning the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy to being a staunch supporter of abortion rights."

Study Shows Knesset Not Doing Enough To Promote Gender Equality

Published date: 
26 Jan 2009
The Israel Women's Network released a report that the Knesset, was not fully using the tools it has to promote gender equality. 

Women Pledge to Fight Gender Discrimination

Published date: 
25 Jan 2009

The 24 of January has been declared National Girlchild Day by the government of India.  The day coincided with the swearing-in-ceremony of the country's first female prime minister Indira Gandhi.

I Have Listened, I Have Heard

Page content: 

The stories on this booklet is developed by two groups of South African women - lesbian women facing discrimination and violence, and women who experienced domestic violence.

We held two workshops, of four days each, at the end of which participants had developed their own digital‘movies’, using their own words, narration, pictures and text. We used computers and software, scanners, digital cameras and audio recorders to build the movies. These stories demonstrate the impact of violence on women’s lives. They also show the intersection of gender and other forms of exclusion or discrimination – such as sexual orientation, poverty and HIV/AIDS. The story tellers also celebrate their survival, their relationships and their perseverance.

The stories, and this booklet, are for use in human rights, women’s rights and gender education and training programmes. The booklet accompanies the CD, to give guidelines and ideas on the use of the stories in human rights training and education.

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For more infomation on Women'sNet digital stories telling project please click here. For additional information or request a hard copy of this booklet, please contact Women'sNet at women [at] womensnet [dot] org [dot] za

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