63 women testify individually as WOZA appears in court

By Tererai Karimakwenda
14 August 2006

As the women in South Africa celebrated the 50th anniversary of their historic march against discriminatory laws last week, 63 women in Zimbabwe appeared in court facing charges for distributing roses on Valentine’s Day. Their lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said on Monday the idea that handing out flowers is a crime is astounding on its own. But in Zimbabwe doing just that landed the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) in jail for 4 days under inhumane conditions. The state claims they were participating in an activity likely to cause obstruction and a breach of peace. Judgement will be handed down on August 28th.

Mtetwa said each woman testified individually to give their own version of events because many of them were innocent passers-by who were caught up in the police raid. One woman testified that she has been using crutches for years and could barely walk so she could not have been part of any demonstration.

On February 14th about 200 WOZA women took to the streets of Harare and Bulawayo to give out roses for Valentines Day. Police descended on them arresting 63 and detaining them for 4 days during which their bras and underwear are reported to have been taken. They were also denied sanitary pads by the police.

Every year in August the WOZA women organise what they call
Sheroes Day, which is their National Assembly. This year they kept the location secret for the event which took place from 11th to 14th August.

We have been unable to reach the WOZA officials for an update as to how it all went but they expected approximately 300 WOZA members to attend and many invited guests and observers.