In December 2014, Zimbabwe was subjected to a shocking video of a woman stripped to her underwear by touts along Fourth Street.
For wearing a miniskirt, the young woman was groped, harassed and stripped naked.
I recall women’s movements expressed outrage in a march and I wrote an article in this publication in which I warned that such lawlessness was threatening the right to personal safety guaranteed by our Constitution.
The police arrested the two culprits and the courts convicted them.
This, however, was not a deterrent to such behaviour and women and girls have continued to be subjected to humiliation simply for walking alone at taxi ranks, should the touts be bored or simply feel like entertaining themselves at the expense of the target concerned.
I recall making a point that, whether this incident had anything to do with the miniskirt or not, it was unacceptable and an attempt to control women’s fashion choices and sense of safety in public spaces.
This was simply an expression of unbridled power and gender discrimination, which needed to be effectively dealt with by the law. The incident of a 13-year-old child who was raped by a tout at Rezende parkade has proven that point.
All the girl doing, whom we shall call Girl 7/13 (she is in grade 7 and is 13 years old, and we can’t use her name), was trying to board a taxi and go home!
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This attempt to carry out this simple routine task became a nightmare as she found herself being dragged from one taxi to another by the unruly touts.
Tragically, being dragged from taxi to taxi was not to be her worst experience of the day.
As a seemingly good Samaritan appeared to have rescued her, she found herself being raped in a taxi parked at a public rank!
A number of issues arise from even the possibility of such an occurrence.
The issue of the unhealthy bystander effect, which leads to a failure to take ownership of the need for safety in public.
It is disappointing that the public can watch a 13-year-old child being harassed, shrug their shoulders, decide it’s not their problem and go about their business.
Who then shall protect our children if, as citizens, we cannot set standards of what is acceptable and unacceptable on our streets?
We appear to be in a space where touts can accurately predict the unconcerned reaction of the public, so they proceed with their unlawful actions. Touts are a few people, in proportion to members of the public, at a crowded taxi rank for them to subject potential female commuters to humiliation as if they are worthless objects and get away with it.
These are our streets, and it's within our power to define what shall and shall not happen on them.
If someone had intervened when the child was being harassed, the rape would certainly not have happened. We let her down! It’s interesting how if someone shouts “thief!” The public will mete out instant justice, but when a girl or a woman is being groped and harassed, no one reacts.
Are money and other possessions more important than females' safety and dignity? Taking personal responsibility for the safety of women and girls in our communities is evidence of Ubuntu and we need to see more men and boys demonstrating their rejection of this blithe on male conduct!
Some serious self-introspection is called for here.
Today it's Girl 7/13, tomorrow it might be your wife, daughter or sister, so it is your business!
Linked to public disinterest is also the need for law enforcers to realise they must ensure personal safety and freedom of movement for women and girls in public spaces.
The second issue is the wanton violation of the right to personal security for children. The Constitution promises children protection from abuse and maltreatment in section 81(1)(e). Our Bill of Rights assures every Zimbabwean, including women and girls, of liberty, human dignity and personal security, and what happened to Girl 7/13 violated all these rights. The only way we can make up for this is to ensure no other child goes through what she endured.
The rape is also evidence of the continued acceptance of the objectification of the female body driven by gender inequality in all spheres of life in Zimbabwe.
A tout thinks he can just force himself on a child and there will be no consequences! Certainly, there is something wrong with the way this tout and many other men view women. Zimbabwe has committed to SDG5 on gender equality and this commitment should not only be about statistics on female participation; it should also be about whether women and girls feel they can access services safely in public. It should be about our streets being safe for everyone, and it should be about personal security for women and girls.
A look at the latest ZDHS report shows a disturbing pattern of continued gender-based violence, including sexual violence against women and children.
What makes things worse is a real sense of threat felt by women in public spaces, with 60% of girls reporting feeling unsafe while commuting in public spaces. That has to change; otherwise, we are not delivering on the SDGs.
This keeps happening. Today it’s rape. What assurance do we have that there won't be murder? A lot is at stake, including the value system that we are passing on to our children and our reputation as a nation.
If safety in public places is not assured, then what is? Outrage is not enough. There is a need for decisive action.
Girl 7/13 is a child with dreams and the right to feel safe on the streets of her city. She will need therapy to live with the trauma and she deserves better. The psychological impact of rape in a public place (which is supposed to be the safest of all places, at least from rape) is difficult to recover from. Someone shattered Girl 7/13’s innocence, treating her like an object.
That someone has to be reminded that there is a law in Zimbabwe and that the law protects all citizens, including women and girls. One raped girl, is one too many? Let the men and women of Zimbabwe draw the line! Enough! Let Girl 7/13 be the last!
