Female diplomats on gender parity

 Barbara Joziasse( Netherlands) and Lisa Stadelbauer( Canada)

Canadian ambassador Lisa Stadelbauer and Netherlands ambassador Barbara Joziasse to Zimbabwe, last week held that the respect for human rights and equality, were the driving concerns to augment the gender parity conversation in the media during a Ladies Night discussion in commemoration of Women’s Month celebrated during the month of March at Harare’s premier journalist meeting place, the Quill Club.

Speaking on Thursday, ambassador Lisa Stadelbauer, said the recognition for the respect of human and equal rights could enable the fight against discrimination of women in the local media. “In Canada the reason, we have gone this far is because we have start on the basic point of respect of human rights and equality, I would like to see fewer stories about female rapists, promiscuous women and witches and more stories about strong women who are doing brave things.”

Dutch ambassador, Barbara Joziasse, noted how the media politically skewed developments. “The way developments are portrayed in the media, generally sometimes I feel they are an insult to the reader, some of the accusations and insinuations are so obviously used for a political platform,” she said.

“I think it is very unfair to the women and men portrayed wrongly in the media, I would be happy if all the women would fight for the portrayal of women in the country and were portrayed more positively,” ambassador Joziasse said who had initial postings in the Hague and Cairo.

Canadian ambassador Lisa Stadelbauer speaking at Ladies Night  

Ambassador Stadelbauer, who joined External Affairs and International Trade in Canada since 1990, echoed the same sentiments, noting that it was the responsibility of every woman to fight against discrimination, “close minded people will always exist in society, it is our responsibility to push back when others are discriminating.”

Women’s History Month commemorated in March, whose origins in the United States dates back to 1981 was allocated weekly recognition until 1987, when the celebrations were designated to the month of March. Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”

“If you raise your children to recognise the core beliefs of respect for human and equal rights, those beliefs will permeate through society and the new constitution does a good job of doing that, if it is implemented the way the draft constitution was intended to, then it is a very good start.”

Media need to understand strategic non-violence

Women activists working on human rights and peace building, called on the media to be more comprehensive in their reporting, noting that ignorance shown by the media was diminishing the efforts done by human rights in accomplishing non-violent protests.

“Members of the media have not done enough to understand strategic non-violence, not only will they fail to cover the issue that would have motivated the protests. Sometimes they will even not bother to mention the story unless there was violence involved,” said Jenni Williams, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) leader, during a Ladies Night discussion to honor Black History Month at Harare’s premier journalist meeting place, the Quill Club.

Black History Month which honors the struggles of millions throughout the world over the most devastating obstacles - slavery, prejudice, poverty — as well as their contributions to the global cultural and political life.

The event is being held to honor the role played by women the struggle for civil and political rights. In the US, Rosa Parks is one of several notable figures, an African-American seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama- who refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Her defiance spurred a movement that advanced the journey toward justice and equality for all.

Margaret Dongo, who facilitated the discussion with Williams and Netsai Mushonga, added saying there was no need to resort to violence to make a difference.  “One does not need to hold a gun to be called a liberator; we have all in our ways liberated this country,” said the former legislator, “In these elections especially we should use the Rosa Park model as a workable model on peacefully handling the elections.”  

Mushonga, the national coordinator for the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ), challenged women journalists to create their own platforms where they could be able to champion and manage the coverage of women issues.

“There is a need for a radical shift in the media; I would like to encourage women journalists to investigate how women can have their own radio and television stations, so that women’s issues can begin to be covered,” she said. “About 13% of women issues are covered in the media and that’s a gross ignorance of the efforts women are doing around Zimbabwe.”

She expressed disappointment on the polarization of the media, which was affecting balance of stories. “You only get half of the story in the paper and to get the full story you have to read two newspapers, one from the Herald and another from one of the papers.”

Williams indicated that the media were in the same boat as activists as they also had the mandate to expose injustices in their reporting. “If we are exercising our rights to protest and we are persecuted, we need help to expose the injustice, and so the media plays a very important role,” she said. “You are in fact our partners in this struggle in exposing the injustices and bringing democracy.”

“Journalists are going to have to start telling the story of the ordinary person, and do that by telling the story of the ordinary woman. In that way, we can know how to rebuild this society,” Williams said.

The Ladies Night discussion series is an initiative of the Women Journalists Mentoring Program (WJMP) which is jointly implemented by the US Embassy Public Affairs Section and the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre (HIFC). WJMP was started in September 2011 as an experiential learning program designed to motivate women to stay in the media. It seeks to promote the empowerment of women journalists through mentoring, training and field visits. Each year the program recruits 15 young women journalists who are assigned mentors and undertake a series of leadership and writing skills courses as well as field visits to local and regional institutions.