{"id":6902,"date":"2012-01-30T07:55:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T07:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=6902"},"modified":"2012-01-30T07:55:23","modified_gmt":"2012-01-30T07:55:23","slug":"strip-me-not-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/30\/strip-me-not-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"STRIP-ME-NOT CAMPAIGN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dear Sisters,<\/p>\n

Please join us in condemning the stripping of women in Malawi by endorsing the Strip-Me-Not Campaign<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Strip-Me-Not Campaign is an initiative of the Solidarity for African Women\u2019s Rights [1](SOAWR) Coalition after learning that street venders in Malawi are stripping women and girls wearing trousers and short skirts. The campaign aims at standing in solidarity as African women to offer support to women and girls in Malawi by way of mobilizing many other women from across the African continent to denounce this barbaric act that violates women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

SOWAR is calling on all women and men of goodwill to endorse the Strip-Me-Not Campaign Statement.<\/p>\n

The Statement with all signatories will be delivered to Embassies of Malawi across Africa, Office of the President of Malawi, Ministry of Gender and media houses in Malawi and Africa on 3rd February, 2012.<\/p>\n

Your endorsements (name, organization, country and signature) should be sent to admin\u00a0femnet.or.ke before the end of day on 30th January, 2012.<\/p>\n

Kindly circulate this call for action to your various constituencies in your country.<\/p>\n

In sisterhood,<\/p>\n

Solidarity for African Women\u2019s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition<\/p>\n

Dinah Musindarwezo<\/p>\n

Executive Director FEMNET<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n

[2]The mobs of men and boys in Malawi beat and stripped women in markets for wearing trousers or short skirts, rather than traditional Malawian dress for women. Other African nations, including Kenya South Africa, [3] Zambia , and Zimbabwe have seen similar attacks and harassment of women. Last year, women and men held “SlutWalks” in South Africa , joining an international campaign against the notion that a woman\u2019s appearance can excuse attacks and rapes.<\/p>\n

[1] The Solidarity for African Women\u2019s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition is a Pan-African regional network comprised of 39 national, regional and international civil society organisations based in 18 countries, working towards the promotion and protection of women\u2019s human rights in Africa . Since its inauguration in 2004 SOAWR\u2019s main area of focus has been to compel African states to urgently ratify, domesticate and implement the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa .<\/p>\n

[2] http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-africa-16645594<\/p>\n

[3] http:\/\/www.flavafm.co.zm\/post.php?idu=4209<\/p>\n

Background:<\/h3>\n

20 January 2012 Last updated at 16:43 GMT<\/p>\n

Source:<\/em>\u00a0BBC News Africa<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-africa-16645594<\/p>\n

Malawian women protest over \u2019trouser attacks\u2019<\/p>\n

Women protesters in Malawi Women held up a sign saying: “Real men don\u2019t bother women”<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people have protested in Blantyre in Malawi about attacks on women for wearing trousers.<\/p>\n

Some women were this week beaten and stripped by vendors on the streets of the capital, Lilongwe, and Blantyre for not wearing traditional dress.<\/p>\n

A BBC reporter says women wore trousers and mini-skirts to the demonstration to show their outrage.<\/p>\n

President Bingu wa Mutharika has said on national radio that women had the right to wear what they want.<\/p>\n

He denied reports that he had ordered women to stop wearing trousers, and ordered anyone harassing women to be arrested.<\/p>\n

Until 1994, women in the deeply conservative southern African country were banned from wearing trousers or mini-skirts under the autocratic rule of Hastings Banda.<\/p>\n

Men were also banned from having long hair.<\/p>\n

Women have also been attacked for wearing trousers in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u2019Abominable\u2019<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says Vice-President Joyce Banda, the gender minister, several MPs, church leaders, university lecturers and other activists attended Friday\u2019s protest.<\/p>\n

One sign was held up during the gathering with the words: “Real men don\u2019t bother women” and some of the women wore white T-shirts saying: “Vendor: Today I buy from you, tomorrow you undress me?”<\/p>\n

“The reason why I\u2019m here is because I\u2019m in total disbelief that in the year 2012 women are being stripped naked,” Ms Banda told the BBC at the vigil.<\/p>\n

Speaker after speaker condemned the harassment of women, saying Malawi could not afford to turn back the clock, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n

“Trousers and mini-skirts for most women in Malawi is a symbol for our hard-won freedom from the one-party dictatorship to the multiparty era,” one woman said.<\/p>\n

“Therefore it has been a shock\u2026 that 18 years after that multiparty [era began] we can sit here and talk about women being undressed in town. It\u2019s abominable.”<\/p>\n

Our correspondent says men and boys also attended the event where there was dancing and singing, with the Bob Marley classic No Woman No Cry getting the loudest cheers.<\/p>\n

A vendors\u2019 representative at the protest, Innocent Mussa, was booed off the stage by the women, he says.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m ashamed to be associated with the stripping naked of innocent women,” Mr Mussa told the crowd.<\/p>\n

“Those were acts of thugs, because a true vendor would want to sell his wares to women, he can\u2019t be harassing potential customers,” he said.<\/p>\n

Seodi White, a lawyer and leading women\u2019s rights activist and protest organiser, said the women were being targeted by disaffected youth unhappy with the economic situation.<\/p>\n

“Is this really about culture or something else in terms of economic hardship people are looking for an outlet to vent on?,” she told the BBC\u2019s Network Africa programme.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Mrs Banda also blamed the attacks on economic woes in Malawi, where there are severe shortages of fuel and foreign currency at present.<\/p>\n

“There is so much suffering that people have decided to vent their frustrations on each other,” the vice-president said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the UK and other donors cut aid to Malawi, amid criticism of its economic policies and its attitude to the opposition and journalists.<\/p>\n

President Mutharika on Thursday made a nationwide broadcast, calling for an end to the attacks.<\/p>\n

“I will not allow anyone to\u2026 go on the streets and start undressing women and girls wearing trousers, because that is illegal,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You are free to wear what you want. Women who want to wear trousers should do so, as you will be protected from thugs, vendors and terrorists.”<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n

* Malawi mulls mini-skirt freedoms 12 NOVEMBER 2003, AFRICA * Malawi country profile 20 JULY 2011, AFRICA * Sudanese \u2019trousers woman\u2019 jailed 07 SEPTEMBER 2009, AFRICA * Sudan outrage at trouser arrests 08 OCTOBER 2008, AFRICA * Anger at SA woman trouser \u2019ban\u2019 26 JULY 2007, AFRICA * Clampdown after sect strips women 25 OCTOBER 2000, AFRICA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Sisters, Please join us in condemning the stripping of women in Malawi by endorsing the Strip-Me-Not Campaign. The Strip-Me-Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1226,1483,1479,834,299],"class_list":["post-6902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-campaign","tag-strip-me-not","tag-stripping","tag-vendors","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}