WUNRN
WIDNet - Women's Information for
Development Network - 2007
Zambia
- Violence Continues to Claim Women's and Girls’ Lives in Zambia
“Zero
Tolerance to violence against women” was the theme of this year’s International
Women’s Day. Are we as women whining about the same things over and over again?
For me the theme really came alive through the stories of two women.
Story 1: Here is a married woman who following a marital dispute finds herself
in the police cells supposedly after seeking counsel with the VSU?? Is this
usual procedure?. Three other women inmates are subsequently released after
bail/fines are paid. Her husband after having taken her there and left her in
the cells is now unable to raise money for her release. What’s the money for?
Next morning she’s dead supposedly from suicide, post mortem isn’t confirming
this. Some witnesses say she screamed and pleaded against rapists while in
police cells before she eventually died. This for me is a stain on our police
service and a such should they not thoroughly investigate so that they put our
minds at rest?
Story 2: Here is a young girl at the eve of her womanhood found dead in her own
home stabbed with the kitchen knife lying in a pool of blood. This happened in
the afternoon in a busy residential neighbour-hood in a cottage within a yard
shared with the main house. The case is still a mystery as to how she got
killed and nobody heard or saw anything, but what is even more frustrating is
that this happened in broad daylight and in the supposed safety of her own
home.
What
we have left from this young girl is a poem written in commemoration of
International Women’s Day on the theme of violence. Below is a poem written by
a girl who lost her life due to violence.
Poem by Late Nikaya N Hamoonga Munyanja
Once before
You stole my innocence
You shattered my dreams
You tarnished my beauty
And suffocated my pride
You broke my heart
You destroyed my hopes
You wounded my integrity
And struck me down
Now,
I won’t let you diminish me
I won’t let you call me names
I won’t let you jeopardize my chances of a productive and fulfilling future
No more will you submerge my strength as a woman
Women we must be submerged no longer
We must be heard, seen, acknowledged, appreciated and accepted.
We have the right to live our lives, so let us live them to the fullest
With pride, joy, happiness, good health and education!!
But most of all, we must live life with powerful integrity,
Power that will catch the eyes, because of the Beautiful Woman who carries it!!
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