Dexter Mwanamobe
As we recognize the 16 days of activism against gender based violence against women it is of paramount importance that we should take into cognizance issues to do with gender
disparities that are still into existence.
It is known that in the past decades women were subjected to all forms of discrimination,
abuse, ostracism and even exclusion.
Women were never recognized and they were just used as weapons and objects of sexual
activities and only confined to household activities. In work places only men were permitted to work and took much of the responsibilities including top positions.
With the shift from state centered security to human security human rights became a factor
that has to be recognized world wide.
This can be traced in the words of L. Ron. Hubbard who stated that “Human rights must be made a fact and not an idealistic dream”.
“The coming in of the United Nations made it possible for women to be recognized in developmental issues. There have been various conventions that were put in place that sought to promote women empowerment.
The United Nations Charter of 1945 was the foundational document of the United Nations
affirmation on the equality of men and women as a contractual obligation for all the member states.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) also encompassed gender equality
within the International human rights law framework. We had the Convention on the Political Rights of Women (CPRW) (1952) that was the first international convention to codify basic political rights of women including the right to vote, be eligible for elections and to hold public office equally with men.
The Declaration on the GENDER EQUALITY FOR ALL MEN AND WOMEN Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW) (1993) and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1999).
All these Conventions gave women the autonomy to get empowered, and to do some
roles that were said to be of men only.
Coming back to our continent of Africa several initiatives have been undertaken to protect
women and empower them. African continent is highly infiltrated with patriarchal systems that undermine women.
So in order to protect them various initiatives are being carried out in order to promote
equality.
The Maputo protocol for example sought to protect women’s rights and the African Union
Convention on Ending Violence against Women and Girls that was adopted recently in February 2025.
The Zimbabwean government has also adopted constitutional amendments to promote the
empowerment of women and protect them from all forms of abuse.
For instance the Domestic Violence Act of 2007.
All these efforts were meant to protect women since they have been victims of abuse for a
while. It is of paramount importance to note that in this modern age women now lead
most of the sectors be it workplaces or churches.
There are now constitutional provisions to criminalize any form of violence against women
and there are being uplifted in many areas.
Fundamentally, there is definitely nothing wrong about all these provisions because in this century gender equality is equally important.
Every human being has to be treated with respect and dignity because every human being
regardless of being male or female a human is just one and above all a creation of Gods
image.
The government also affirms that in its Vision 2030 mantra “Leaving no one and no place
behind” meaning both men and women have got crucial roles to play in national development.
Shifting our focus to the main discourse of the subject the advocacy of gender equality and
advocacy on the protection of women has resulted in the neglect to the empowerment of
men.
Men now face challenges more than women did in the early centuries before the coming of
the United Nations convention in 1945.
The world no longer looks at the problems faced by men and it is actually one of the reasons why many men out there are committing suicides due to the fact that no one is looking after them.
The situation has further been worsened by the coming in of the ideals of feminism that has made women to demand taking up the roles of men and challenge them even within
family set ups.
Recently there has been a scourge of men being sexually assaulted by women, but all this
seem to be given little attention. The past weeks there has been a video that circulated on social media platforms where by a young boy below the age of 18 was having sexual intercourse with a woman who is old enough to be her mother.
What surprises me the most is that the women who are normally vocal when this
happens to a girl child they never advocated for justice to the boy child, but if it was the girl child who had been assaulted that way we could have seen “Justice for
the girl”.
This shows how unequal the society is towards men. It appears like the concept of
gender equality is now only conferred to women at large but also ignoring how men are
suffering in silence.
Furthermore men are also now victims of false rape allegations due to these trends that protect women more than men.
On this one I am not a legal expert, but I have come to the realization that most men are
languishing for rape crimes in our prisons that they never committed.
We have had case of young male adults who their girlfriends lied to about age and showed them fake birth certificates and currently there are in prisons because of that.
Talking of work places when it comes to disciplinary hearing cases that involve sexual
harassment in most cases the panels do not grant the male victim the permission to defend
himself.
This is as a result of negligence towards men. It is now risky for most of the young boys and men to stay with a lady for days even if the lady is a relative because anything can happen we have seen most men being accused of rape by their own relatives.
Worse talking about romantic relationships this is now risky considering how issues can easily be turned against men even if it was consensual.
In this case we are not in support of sexists and rapists who abuse our beloved mothers and sisters, but it is just a call to promote equality and realize that men are
also victims.
Issues to do with gender equality and gender based violence should never be a one sided
story. In as much as courts are doing well in realizing that there are women who lie that they have been raped when they are not.
There has to be a paradigm shift with regards to this issue. In as much as empowering women is vital it is also important to put eyes on men.
This is to avoid the recurrence of gender based violence because the other reason why
men end up committing violence against women it is due to bitterness of them being left out in these gender issues.
On the same note the other reason why men suffer it is due to the fact they do not speak out.
