Mildred Mushunje, PhD
The struggle for the recognition of women’s rights is one that has been fraught with backlash, including those arising out of patriarchal privileges and misogynistic ideals. Various movements including Feminist movements have risen to challenge these ideals. The movements have been multiverse and varied but they generally have the goal of addressing women’s gender subordination, the roots of women’s oppression, how gender inequality is perpetuated, and offer differing remedies for gender inequality. Such movements have also found expression in instruments such as The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, Maputo Plan of Action and SADC SRHR Strategy. Batliwala (2008[1]) asserts that “a movement is a set of organised constituents pursuing a common political agenda through collective.
Abortion remains highly contested in Zimbabwe and this stems from deeply rooted convictions based on religious, traditional, cultural, and moralistic persuasions. Political will for unrestricted circumstances for abortion remains very limited as evidenced by the hesitancy to review the 1977 Termination of Pregnancy Act (ToP) which allows for abortion under the circumstances of rape, incest and health. Feminist advocates have been at the helm of initiatives to expand the circumstances. Women and girls are victims of stigma associated with abortion even when they have the legal right to have an abortion. action”. This is driven by societal attitudes in which even when a woman can legally access a safe abortion. Abortions are a fundamentally feminist topic, touching on bodily autonomy, sex and sexuality, private versus public sphere and intersecting with many other factors such as poverty, class, education, income among others[2]. Bodily autonomy is the right to “make decisions about one’s own life and future.” Accessing safe abortion means having the ability to afford it, physically get to an abortion provider.”[3] Feminists affirm abortion as an important option for women, not every woman that becomes pregnant wants to carry the pregnancy to term and safe choices are necessary.
Creating a movement of players has been one way that Zimbabwe has gained traction in de-bunking judgemental attitudes related to abortion and women’s bodily agency. The safe abortion movement in Zimbabwe has brought together the following players:
Movement building is premised on developing strategies that target issues which often try to change the ‘who, how, and what’ of policy-making – the decision-makers, the transparency and inclusiveness of the process, and the policies – so that decision-making is more democratic and accountable and so that people’s needs and rights are addressed (Wilson, OSISA[4]).
Political Leaders and policy makers – these have been critical for pushing forward agendas with which feminist movements are concerned. For instance, Zimbabwe feminists have been at the fore of a movement that agitates for the review of the Termination of Pregnancy Act. There is a movement of Parliamentarians who actively engage in parliamentary debates on the termination of pregnancy, a topic which was taboo. This has resulted in policy makers’ abilities to form collective identities and articulate their interests, which are shaped by local, political, and historically contingent processes.
Service providers – service providers have been engaged as key strategic allies in protecting women and girls against unsafe abortions. Young women requiring access to health services including contraceptives are often saddled with judgemental attitudes by service providers. However, through engagement and movement building, the feminist movement agenda has helped to ensure that these service providers are also endowed with skills to provide services from a feminist perspective.
Religious and cultural leaders– these are influencers that have the capacity to quell or advance feminist movement agenda. There is a good cohort that has embraced human rights principles and are therefore no longer judgemental in their approach to addressing women and bodily agency. We continue to sensitize them on the facts, evidence, and women’s human rights and how they can be agents of change as part of the feminist movement. They are key in challenging myths, and misconceptions that surround women’s rights, choices, and autonomy.
Media – the media is a powerful tool for advancing the feminist movement and it has been engaged to demystify women’s rights and the safe abortion agenda. An excellent example is the Health Times which produces progressive articles on women’s health. The media has been It can be used to harness positive narratives on women’s rights and be engaged to influence societal attitudes and policy influence.
Development partners – these are important in supporting movement building especially in funding the feminist movement and helping to sustain these. Development partners, such as NGOs, government agencies, and international organizations, play a crucial role in supporting movement building. The Royal College of Obs and Gynae is an example of a partner that has supported Zimbabwe champions from different sectors to converge and contribute to a strong movement on women’s rights and access to safe abortion.
The movement on safe abortion in Zimbabwe has created indelible footprints across different sectors and spheres. There is evidence of progressive change in attitudes by all the players that have been roped into the safe abortion movement. Cultural leaders have committed to ensuring that cases of incest and rape are reported and that women are supported to access abortion orders through the court system whilst the religious leaders committed to not condemning their congregants who sought abortions[5]. The expression is, “we will support the women to access safe legal abortions but we will not condone abortion otherwise we stop being Christians”.
[1] Batliwala, S. (2008). Feminist Leadership for Social Transformation: Clearing the Conceptual Cloud. Development, 51(3), 338-345. https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2008.26 [2] Mushunje and Mazhambe, 2023, Rethinking Feminist Movement Building: Young Africa Women taking the lead [3] Feminism and Abortion (politics4her.com) [4] Wilson, S. (2016). Feminist & Women’s Movement Building in Southern Africa. Open debate, OSISA. Retrieved from https://www.osisa.org/open-debate/feminism/feminist-women’s-movement-building-southern-africa. [5] Mushunje and Mazhambe, 2023, Rethinking Feminist Movement Building: Young Africa Women taking the lead
