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Women Peacemakers
Netsai Mushonga
ZimbabweGALLERYCONVERSATION
I became an activist early on in my life because of the discrimination and abuse of women that I witnessed growing up.

I grew up in the rural areas of Zimbabwe, being a fourth born in a family of six girls and two boys. What became apparent as I grew up was that society did not value me as a girl and my mother was taunted day and night for being a mother of girls. Traditions were very strong in my village and I remember being forced to bow and greet every men and boy I met along the roads. At school I was told that girls were daft even as I came top of my class. My father always told us that my mother was daft even though I could see how shrewd she was and how we all depended on her. My father worked away from home but would get funds for bus fare and other items from my mother's enterprises. I started believing in women early and fought to get a good education. Things were never easy as people would urge my father not to spend too much education money on girls. In 1998 I started working with Women Peacemakers Program and realized I could fight for women's human rights from a peace perspective.

When I was eight years old, I was required to work every waking hour yet the boys could be literally sleeping while I worked. There was so much waiting around to do for the men. We the girls had to look after the babies, weed the fields, clean the houses and yards, fetch water, warm it and set it for men to bath, cook and give the food to men, and the men always got the best food. Women got battered by their husbands frequently in my village and that irked me. I was asked to be respectful to some men who did not even respect themselves. Then I would wonder why God made me a girl because being a boy looked easy - everything was given to you. I was alarmed when my distant cousin was killed by her husband and then not arrested. He was made to pay a cow to his in-laws and got a younger fresher woman. That memory from my childhood sticks out to me as I finally realized that women's situation was akin to slavery.

I decided to start a project aimed at gender violence in the church community. This decision was based on my perception that the church is the bastion and pillar of patriarchy and most of the churches do not question gender based violence. The head of the Catholic Church where I once worshipped preached that women who were abused should not come and seek comfort with the church. He explained that women who were battered provoked their husbands, so therefore they should bear the burden when they were abused. I knew then that this was the area we should focus on in our campaign to raise awareness. Mindsets are difficult to change but the groups we have met with through the church have all understood why they should not abuse women. The majority of the Zimbabwean community is Christian and so going through the church reaches out to quite a big chunk of the population. Many church practices assist to keep women in the subordinate position and church elders argue that this position is ordained by God; hence the need to work with the churches to dispel this myth.

The responses we got from the evaluations and follow up discussions to the workshops revealed that mindsets had changed in many cases after our work to raise awareness. The sessions we led were based on the bible which Christians use and believe in. We established the equality of women and men from a biblical perspective, we also worked to establish clearly the fact that hurting women and girls were sins in the eyes of God and whoever abused God's children would be punished in the end. I remember one men who had been very traditional in his belief admitting that he could now never justify abusing his wife after attending the workshop. The men and women who attended our workshop will work to eliminate gender based violence where they see it and reduce or stop it if they were perpetrators.

I believe that a culture of nonviolence gives us an alternative, a much better alternative to the hatred and destruction that violence brings with it. Nonviolence is also a way of life where men and women undertake not to harm or engage in violence themselves. They also undertake not to harm the enemy but to struggle nonviolently to win over the enemy. Nonviolence is not passivity. It’s being brave enough not to hurt the enemy but to reach out to them, show them the evilness of their ways and walk with them the path to nonviolence. It’s also making sure that those who have been wronged get justice. Nonviolence aims to build critical masses of people who will protest nonviolently for a goal and this can be very effective in pushing societies to move away from cultures of violence towards women.

It’s critical that we celebrate women’s achievements so that we know how far we have come. Many times we forget to do this since we still face so much discrimination and violence. However, we need role models, now more that ever, we need success stories to look up to and inspire the young, we need to keep documenting where we have come from and how far we have come. But we also need to mount global campaigns to express dissatisfaction with negative issues affecting women. Let’s claim our spaces all round.
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Barbara Waugh (United States)
Changing the mindset of a society is a daunting challenge. Women within that society, who don't see themselves as empowered are hard-pressed to convince others of their strength and their value. I really applaud you- teaching women (and men!)to truly believe that women deserve basic human rights and protections can only result in positive change. Your story touched my heart!
Debbie Pancipanci (United States)
Your view of equating the tratment of women to slavery is bold, but true. It is clear from your story that the women are clearly strong enough to stand on their own without the help of men. Your are doing your part to focus attention on giving women the same basic rights as men, by including boys in the class you may change the future. The church should be a safe haven to hide not be tormented.
Khali (South Africa)
I find it so hard to believe how women are still being abused even within their family's.I like how you are using the bible as a tool for positive change. Bible study which has held women down is being used as a means for uprising. It is just horrific to to learn that these abhorrences continue today with the knowledge humankind has gained.
Laura Ward (United States)
I was really moved by your story Netsai. I too am interested in what Bible stories were used in the workshops?

Its a tribute to you & your character that instead of letting the discrimination & violence you experienced in your childhood lower your self-esteem, you were able to use these experiences as motivation & strength to start this gender violence project in the church. Good luck with it
Wendy (United States)
I would be intrested in what bible stories were used in the workshops that changed this dreadful situation for Women and so profoundly changed the men? Perhaps these stories could be taught in childrens church programs?
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