Washington, DC — Mary Silavwe Mulenga is taking part in the International Visitor Regional Project for Africa through the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Program. She is traveling with the eight other African women leaders in economics and politics.
Mulenga is the former Executive Director of the YWCA in Zambia, and her work is focused on creating awareness around gender-based violence, providing for women and children who are victims of violence, and promoting women's rights in Zambia. She spoke with All Africa's Jill Sudhoff-Guerin about the International Visitor's Program and the challenges of her work.
Can you explain what has brought you here today, what you are hoping to achieve, and what you hope to get out of this experience?
I was nominated for the International Visitor's Program from the American Embassy back home in Zambia. At first, I wasn't quite sure why I was nominated, but I thought it was quite a privilege because the program is very enriching.
The theme for the International Visitor's Program is `Women as Political and Economic Leaders.' For me, it is a learning experience. I'm not a politician. I'm not even a businesswoman, but part of the program is also looking at civil society organizations and what contribution they are making in the political and economic fields. From that point of view, I feel I have something to offer, having been the Executive Director of the YWCA for 3.5 years.
Can you talk about the advocacy and empowerment work you do with the YWCA?
The YWCA in Zambia is one of the oldest organizations, having been around for the last 47 years and we're working in about 40-45 percent of the districts in Zambia. The main focus of the work of the YWCA is championing issues of human rights, focusing very much on women and children's rights, most specifically issues of gender-based violence, especially violence against women and children.
We have a number of programs. We run drop-in centers, and we are offering counseling to women and children. We have the only shelter for women who are battered. We have the only shelter in Zambia.
We also have centers for children. We've separated counseling centers for women and children because we realize the problems of children, or the abuses experienced by children, are quite different from the violence and abuses experienced by women.
We also have an advocacy and outreach program, which reaches out to the community, to traditional leaders, [and] to public figures, in order to sensitize and create awareness around issues of gender-based violence.
We are a patriarchal society. We are still trying to struggle with this myth that violence in the homes should only be confined to the four walls, but you will find that a lot of women are still not reporting. Our sensitization program is not just the YWCA, because we network a lot with our NGOs like the Women in Law in Southern Africa, which is legal-based. The Police Victim Support Unit has also been supportive in the work of the YWCA.
We are constantly trying to create awareness about issues that women should not be suffering in silence. They need to report cases of violence and cases of abuse. We know it is difficult because we are socialized to keep quiet and not talk about these things, but we realized that this is a health issue. Women have died at the hands of men on very, very trivial issues. Someone hasn't cooked the man's supper or cooked their supper on time, and the woman is battered.
It is an uphill battle, because you find that some women challenge the work of the YWCA, and they say, 'it's none of your business; this is between me and my husband.' We are saying no to that.
Although, we still do not have a law against violence against women, it is something we are trying to address as a women's movement. Especially at this point in time, where we are reviewing our constitution. We strongly feel that this should be enshrined in the constitution, because then abusers can be held accountable. We feel our issues should be addressed in the Bill of Rights, but we are yet to get to that.
The Times of Zambia stated that 51 percent of married Zambian women feel it is acceptable to be beaten by their husbands. How do you deal with this attitude?
I know [the statistic of 51 percent] is from the Demographic Health Survey that was carried out recently. I remember when it was publicized in the press about four months ago. It was around the same time we were celebrating International Women's Day and we were shocked. We talk about the media and how they sometimes promote stereotypical ideas about such issues. We were quite upset as a women's movement because we were wondering who they interviewed. Who did these people talk to, and who are the respondents?
I think we need to see it in a broader context. I don't think any woman in her right mind would want to be battered and would say that it is all right. There may be a few cases, where we are socialized to keep quiet about these issues. Where one says, `these are family issues. We need to discuss them as a family, and we don't need to tell the whole world.' But, women have died at the hands of men. If you talked to any ordinary woman on the street I don't think that any sane woman would accept that it's okay to be battered, it doesn't matter what the issue is.
When you talk to the custodians of culture, the traditional initiators, they will tell you that any respectable man in a village respected the woman. Because his wife made a lot of important decisions and sometimes the decisions that the men had to make were made after seeking the women's opinions. Just because the woman didn't voice the opinion did not mean they did not have any status in society.
If we are talking about traditional practices, you will be told that actually women had a lot of respect and still continue to have a lot of respect in the village. I think it is a mix of western culture, tradition and all sorts of things. I think that some of these things are used to justify violence. I don't think it's something that is acceptable culturally.
I reiterate the fact that I don't think that the group that was interviewed and said it was okay for women to be battered is representative.
How do you feel Zambia's current economic environment impacts women in society and their vulnerability to HIV/Aids, human rights abuses and so on?
That's a very good question. The economic situation of Zambia right now, like a lot of African countries, is one of struggle. Statistics tell us that 80 percent of the population is poor and the majority of those people are women. So women find themselves in a very vulnerable situation as a result of not having the means to look after themselves.
If I can give some examples of the cases that we've dealt with at the YWCA, where a woman has been exposed to a lot of violence, and runs away from her home. Two days later the woman says, 'what am I going to do? I don't have a job. I've got children who need to go to school. I suppose I'm better off going back to that violent situation, at least I'll be assured three meals a day.'
You find that really these women don't have any choices. Some people have gone back to their violent homes and that has posed a challenge as an organization. Because even though we have a shelter and a safe home for women, it really is just a temporal refuge. This refuge is for three weeks, but we are flexible. Some women have stayed with us for three months, and others have stayed less than that.
I've always said, 'Life after the shelter, what next?' We don't have these answers yet, because we do not have any programs or support mechanisms for the women who have left home, who now need to start life on their own. In fact, we were discussing that with some of the people we have met here in the United States. I personally asked them what sort of support mechanisms do they have for women who have left the shelter?
It's a different situation here in the U.S. because you've got income support. Whereas in Zambia you don't have that, so you find that it's a vicious circle. Usually, the woman doesn't have a job. Most of the women at the shelter are from the lowest income. We do have a few women from the higher income group, but most of the time it's not so much the impact of the economic situation, but it's also this idea that you have some status as a married woman. Women put themselves at risk just for the sake of being called a 'Mrs. Somebody.'
I was talking to some University students, who don't have enough income because they want to have nice clothes and a cell phone. These girls will have affairs with married men. Some of these men are HIV-positive, and some of the wives of those men who are infected have come to the university. They came to talk to the girls and said, 'Look, my husband is HIV-positive. Do you know what you are doing to yourself?' The girls will respond and say, 'You think I don't know? For me it's about the money. If I can get what I need from him, that's it. We will deal with the HIV/Aids in ten years time.'
If we are dealing with commercial sex workers, it is the same reasoning. They will tell you, 'We know that we are exposing ourselves to HIV infections, but it's food on the table today. What choice do I have? I can't stay hungry. My daughter's got to go to school, and I've got to feed the family. What choice do I have?'
So, really the economic situation has put a lot of women in different circles in very vulnerable situations, and talking about economic empowerment is a tough one. Civil society organizations - NGOs like the YWCA - are trying to do some things, but our focus is really on the communities in the rural areas.
We are focused on economic empowerment in the regions of Zambia where we are trying to expose our groups, our clients, to micro-financing institutions. Here they may have access to some loans and small funds, but that is at a very micro-level. What about the other sectors of the economy, the women, who like myself, want to start a business or expand on an existing business?
It's not easy to just walk into a bank and get a loan. It's not there. The interest rates are prohibitive, and the banks want collateral. So you find that the women are left out in a lot of these sort of developmental issues.
You said Zambia is still patriarchal. What is the political climate around gender issues in Zambia?
It's difficult to gauge, but I can only talk from my experience of being part of the women's movement. One thing I know is [that] there [is] a lot of push from the women themselves.
We have decided to gang up, come together, and make a lot of noise. Someone is going to listen someday. The men are not very receptive. With the last elections, there was a tremendous improvement with the number of women in parliament today, but we haven't yet reached the SADC 30 percent quota. Which is a minimum, not that it should be the standard.
It's not easy. I think about two months ago we tried to move a private member's motion on the same idea of 30 percent women in parliament and it wasn't received well. The men basically said, 'Don't expect us to give you positions on a silver platter. You've got to fight for the position, just as we fought for them.'
Obviously we have a problem there. We need to fight for these positions, but then the playing field is not equal. So that is where we have a problem. We are not asking for favors from anyone. I think it is just that we want our position in society.
If we can have access to resources the way men do, I'm sure we can do a good job. The men have the money and it becomes very difficult to compete when it comes to campaigning. Hence, we demand that we need to have our position. We have some very powerful women out there, who can actually make it, if they only had the resources and the support around them.
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Are you finding that women participating in the International Visitor's Program have had common experiences?
I think there is a great unity of experience. We are all coming from Africa and so you find that we have very similar experiences. In fact, when it comes to issues of women, I think it's global. Women are experiencing the same problems, maybe just at differing levels and varying degrees.
I think that is an added advantage, in the sense that we are having this exchange of information. We've got successful businesswomen, politicians, and parliamentarians. We've got people like myself from civil society organizations.
We are able to share this information and see how we can adapt. I'm in civil society. How do I appreciate a politician? One thing in Zambia is government and civil society organizations seem to have a bit of a rift. We suspect each other and we are very suspicious of each other's activities. The bottom line is that we need each other.
If we want laws enacted in the parliament, we need the government and we need the parliamentarians. We need to be checking the government as well, to hold them accountable. There is always this suspicion that civil society is criticizing the government and that the government is always undermining the work of civil society. I think that we do need each other.
One thing that I don't think is going to happen [is that] I will not transplant things directly from the United States. I will not just take it back to Zambia, because it is a completely different environment and we are exposed to different challenges. But we can learn something.
There is a wealth of information, and I think that the networking we are doing is very important. I know organizations here are dealing with issues of human rights, violence against women, shelters, and I can learn from them. How have they managed? What are the challenges that they have faced? When it comes to resources, because that is always the big question, where do you get the resources to actually implement your activities back home?
We are getting information from all of these institutions that are able to help. To me it's the wealth of information, how others have managed, how others have succeeded that I will be able to take back home and see how I can adapt it to my situation.
Also, it may not necessarily be me, having had this experience, but I will be able to give this information to the rightful institutions and say, 'Hey, I think you need to network with Vital Voices, I think you need to talk to Delta Stigma Theatre, I think you need to be talking to the Center for Women's Global Studies.' That is why I think the networking is something that we have to continue.
