afrol News - March 3, 2003

- Menstruation is serious business! will be one of the main slogans when Zimbabwe's Women's Coalition takes to the streets on Saturday. The coalition has been running a press campaign in preparation for this important day to mobilise the country's women to fight for their basic hygienic need on Women's Day.

Women's organisations are sick and tired of the short supplies of pads and cotton wool throughout the country's shops and markets. Hygienic items are now almost exclusively found at the black market at a price level by far exceeding the means of ordinary Zimbabwean households.

The distressing result is that women and girls have to return to old fashioned methods, such as the use and reuse of cotton fabrics, which is more time and energy consuming. These methods also signify a setback for hygiene and comfort.

This is not the first time the country's women's groups launch protests against Mr Mugabe's male-dominated authorities. In September last year, the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network organised a big campaign to protest "the escalating cost of menstruation."

Thousands of women signed a protest letter to the authorities, demanding the removal of "tax on tampons and pads." According to the network, there is a 15 percent tax on these items, which "seem to treat sanitary ware as luxury items and not as basic necessities."

- Menstruation is not a choice, but a monthly biological function of every woman's body, the groups reminded the men i power. The also claimed to have observed a drop in women's productivity due to the lack of hygienic articles. "Without safe and comfortable products women will not be able to go about their day-to-day duties, travel to and from work," they warn.

Women's groups in September warned against ordinary price controls, recommending subsidies on sanitary wares, to avoid that these items disappear from the shelves as so many other price controlled items before them. In March 2003, this is exactly what has happened.

Several of the country's opposition groups support the Women's Coalition's demands and encourage everybody to participate in a mass demonstration against the Mugabe regime on Saturday. Other slogans include 'Stop the violence!' and calls to take the AIDS pandemic seriously. It remains to be seen whether Mugabe's security services will let the women mark their protest or if they will disperse the demonstration, such as on Valentine's Day.

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