{"id":8343,"date":"2012-04-02T10:22:22","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T10:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=8343"},"modified":"2012-04-02T10:22:22","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T10:22:22","slug":"malawis-women-seek-cultural-rights-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/02\/malawis-women-seek-cultural-rights-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi\u2019s Women Seek Cultural Rights Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Women\u2019s rights activists in Malawi say despite laws that protect them on paper, there are still societal barriers that treat women as second class citizens.<\/p>\n

Bhatupe Mhango, a Malawi human rights worker now based in Liberia, said during one recent incident, women wearing skirts and shorts were molested and harassed by vendors. She said this highlights the obstacles facing the country\u2019s females on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [activists] are really asking for society to change their attitudes, their mindsets on how women are perceived in society as a whole,\u201d said Mhango.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a problem in the day-to-day practice of how women are handled, let\u2019s say in marriage or how they are handled upon dissolution of a marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mhango said activists are ramping up their efforts, but their voice is still very \u201cweak\u201d at a national level.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalawians tends to be a very moralistic culture, very conservative. And it\u2019s more than just appealing to society. It\u2019s about appealing to key government ministries, but it\u2019s also about appealing to custodians of our culture\u2026It\u2019s very difficult for women to get their voices heard through these holders of power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mhango said one important issue that remains to be addressed both legally and culturally is a woman\u2019s right to a safe abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with when it\u2019s illegal is that it forces people to go underground,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Mhango said this leads to unnecessary health risks and this is what activists are pushing to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s rights activists in Malawi say despite laws that protect them on paper, there are still societal barriers that treat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1967],"tags":[1966,1682,258,299],"class_list":["post-8343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-bhatupe-mhango","tag-liberia","tag-malawi","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8343","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=8343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}