Voices of Women for Social Justice

The writer Leila Sheikh (in black) is a Senior Journalist; producer of documentaries and Social Justice Defender.

By Leila Sheikh

1.     After her second baby was born Eileen was advised by her doctor to undergo Voluntary Counselling and Testing for HIV (VCT).  She did and was found to be HIV positive.  When she gave the results of the test to her husband, he hit her and hurt her badly and she was taken to hospital for treatment where they refused to treat her without a Police Form (PF3).

 At the Police Station she showed them the results of her HIV test and the two Police Officers told her “You are lucky he did not kill you”.

 By then E was contemplating suicide.  It was her sister’s friend who knew a woman who knew an activist for PLHIV (People Living with HIV/AIDS) Rights, who arranged a meeting between E and the activist.

The activist counselled E. She advised her to move out of the marital home to avoid the spousal violence and introduced her to the Post Test club in Mbagala where people who have undergone Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) and are found to have HIV, are given counselling and psychosocial support.

E is now an activist for the Rights of women who are living with HIV/AIDS.

She says the support and counselling she received helped to save her life and she wants to continue counselling and advocating for the safety of PLHIV women.

 

2.     Vivian-“I found out I have hearing disabilities when I was five years of age.  I was extremely lucky to have loving parents and a loving and supportive family.  I was sent to ordinary schools, not special schools for the deaf.  When I was growing up, there were no sign language teachers.  I used to sit in front of the classroom and study the teachers’ lips and learnt.  I learnt to read facial expressions, gestures, the Alphabet and postures. 

I now counsel parents of children with hearing disabilities.

I also support PLHIV with hearing disabilities.

I do not consider myself a person with disabilities because I live a full life with a husband and children and my volunteer work. We also have a language, the sign language.

I hope one day there will be sign language experts in key government departments and in law enforcement agencies.  For example, when a woman gets raped, she cannot shout for help.  When she goes to a police station to file a report, no one would understand her unless there’s a translator present.

In our estimate there are nearly 1,000,000 deaf people in Tanzania, surely that merits more sign language usage.  I urge parents with deaf children not to hide them.  Deaf children have special needs.  The government ought to allocate a budget to train sign language teachers.  I’m a women’s rights activist.”

3.     Pendo- “I call myself Pendo, though I was given a different name by my parents. I am a Sex Worker.

“In 1999 a woman came to my village in Singida and paid Tsh.50, 000/= to my parents and to the parents of two other girls and said she’d find jobs for us in Dar es Salaam as domestic workers.

We came to Dar es Salaam, were given mitumba clothes and then were sent out to men in hotel rooms.

I hated that woman.  She took the money in advance and then sent us to the men.

I got into this profession when I was 15.  I have been to school, completed primary school education.

            I ran away from ‘the woman’ when I was 18 and started doing business for myself.

This life hardens you.  We have to be tough.  Some of those men are rough and I learnt to hit back.  You can always spot the rough ones. 

I saw ‘that’ woman, the one who brought me to Dar es Salaam sometime back.  She had brought a gaggle of new girls into town from the villages.

Most SWs know of HIV/AIDS, but when a client offers more money, we are willing to engage in non-protective ‘work’.  I mean, with all the men I have had, if I haven’t caught HIV, I’ll never catch it.

My parents do not know what I do.  I tell them I’m a hairdresser.

Yes.  SWs support each other when there are problems, but we are not very loyal when it comes to clients.  We fight over territory and clients.

Even when we are ill we go out.  We have to.  In a way, we are competing with each other.  Who’s the most popular?  Who makes the most money?

You see some of those women in offices?  Some of them ‘moonlight’ as SWs.  Their salaries are not enough to support their families.

We are not the dregs of humanity.  We are human like everyone else.  If we were subhuman, would men come after us?

What is Income Tax?  You say since we are professional women we ought to pay income tax?  Why should we?  Our profession is not recognised.  We are twilight women. 

.

4.     Rehema- “My husband left me when I had a mastectomy. He says I have become ugly; disfigured because I have one breast removed so the breast cancer wouldn’t spread to other parts of my body.

After my second baby was born, I found it difficult to breastfeed him from my right breast. I felt pain and there were some hard, pellet like swellings on the breast. I went to see my doctor who recommended a mammogram at Ocean Road Cancer Institute.  When the results came back, I was told I have breast cancer.

Throughout the ordeal of the tests my husband kept aloof, refusing to acknowledge that I might be seriously ill. He had always admired my looks saying “You are a beautiful woman”.

When I told him the doctor advised a mastectomy, he walked out. My sisters looked after me when I was undergoing surgery and later, the chemo therapy. My husband never came, especially when he was told by his sister that I had become bald from the chemo therapy.

I have recovered, to a certain degree but my counsellor says depression from being abandoned by my husband could retard my healing process.

This country needs Public Education programs for families undergoing the trauma of cancer.

I couldn’t work for two years, and had to take time off from the Bank which employs me. My boss, a man has been supportive. His wife has been to visit me.

Does a woman become less beautiful, less of a woman when she loses a breast? Why does a woman get punished for becoming ill?

5.     Mariam- “I’m Albino.  A woman.  Forty three years of age.  I have two children.  They are not Albino.  I was not sent to school because my mother feared I would be unhappy from jeers and cruelty of other children.

Five years back I had gone with my aunt to collect grass which we weave into mats for sale.  We have to go to a forest at dawn before sun up because of my delicate skin- albinos are prone to getting skin cancer from over exposure to the sun. One morning we were late in getting to the forest and the sun had become hot.  My aunt told me to sit under a tree while she collected the grass in the hot sun.

Two men had been following us.  When my aunt was at a distance, the two men put me in a gunnysack and carried me like an animal.  I was saved by a man on a bicycle who saw me struggling in the sack.  Thinking the two killers had stolen a goat, he shouted to them to stop.  They dropped the sack which they had carried me in and ran away.

My saviour opened the sack and found me trussed like a goat.  He helped me out and took me to my aunt. We reported the incident to the police but my assailants have not been apprehended”.