WOZA to embark on 16 days NOISE protests
By Violet Gonda
23 November 2006

The pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise has announced that from 25 November to 10 December they will also embark on a ‘noisy’ protest campaign in what they have dubbed 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. WOZA Co-ordinator Jenni Williams said the kind of violence they are campaigning against is not just about what happens in the home but also what happens outside. She said Operation Murambatsvina, the government clean up exercise that left 700 000 people homeless, is another form of extreme violence.

She said not only are people are denied shelter but also the right to affordable basic commodities. “To us those are all forms of violence and they are being perpetrated by a government against its own people. So when we are talking about domestic violence as the women of WOZA we are including state sponsored violence.”

WOZA invites Zimbabweans to bang pots, whistle and to honk their car horns for two minutes at 8pm every evening during those days. The say this is a “a step forward to have the promises of the Domestic Violence Bill delivered and put an end to state-sponsored violence so that we can concentrate on rebuilding our country and saving lives.”

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international movement, which began in 1991 to commemorate violence against women and the lack of human rights.

Williams said it’s easy to remember when to start making the noise - “when people start hearing those drums beating with the propaganda news coming from ZBC, that should be their cue to go into their kitchens, go outside their doors. We want them to feel free to do whatever they want, bang pots, shake rattles, use their loud horns like they do when they are supporting Highlanders. That’s the kind of noise we want to hear. We want to drown out the propaganda that is coming from this government until they start to tell the truth. And we also want to send a message that we are not happy and a hungry person is not a happy person.”

According to the World Health Organization's World Health Report 2006 the life expectancy for women in Zimbabwe is 34 years, the lowest in the world. According to the report men in Zimbabwe have a life expectancy of 37. Women form 52% of the population in Zimbabwe and usually it is the mother who must provide food despite a tight budget. It’s reported that 60 per cent of all murders in Zimbabwe were a result of domestic violence, with the majority of the victims women.