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Nthunya Khoboso, South Africa
Joyce Nonde, Zambia
Monique Marti, UNI Women's Officer
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The bar on women taking out loans in Egypt and other countries where
Muslim law operates was highlighted while Nthunya Khoboso of South Africa
reported that women who dominate Africa’s growing informal economy also
face great difficulties getting commercial loans.
A call to stop men setting the political agenda came from Mathilda Chokuda
of Zimbabwe - a male agenda which encourages children to become soldiers
and which in her own country impedes the day-to-day work of unions and
makes political discussion dangerous.
"We should be the leaders of our countries," said Mathilda.
"We should be honest to challenge the cultural norms that take us
backwards," said Joyce Nonde of Zambia. "We should stop using
culture to oppress other people."
Peace Obiajula reported on moves by banks in Nigeria to dismiss women
workers and the success the union had in mobilising opinion to halt the
move.
Peace urged women to "rise up and go to their unions" and led
the session in a song "There is victory for us" with the line
"forward ever and backward never".
Suzanne Kouassi of Cote d’Ivoire talked of the harrowing experience of
living through a civil war in her own country. "We cannot organise,
we cannot speak - it is a terrible situation. We are all yearning for
peace."
Monique Marti, UNI Women’s Officer urged women to give their views on a
wide range of union subjects – including the HIV/AIDS pandemic in
Africa.
Women catch the virus more easily than men and when adults fall sick it is
often the children who have to look after them - the children have to give
up schooling to become the carers and 70% in that situation are girls.
"That is storing up new problems for the future. You cannot deal with
the AIDS problem without looking at it with a gender perspective." |
