Anti-sexual harassment message resounds in Africa

As women around the world stand up to harassing and abusing men, the struggle is alive and well in Africa.

Like a baton pass in the world's most painful relay race, revelations that powerful men have - presuming a right to pleasure - sexually harassed their female colleagues have spread around the world.

It started in the entertainment industry (the first allegations were against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein) and then moved to politics, the media and the not-for-profit sector.

In the latter, the hashtag #AidToo has shown that despite its noble intentions, the development and humanitarian industry is as susceptible to abuses of power and the violence that most of its organisations campaign against.

Despite this groundswell, many have remarked that the African continent seems largely silent on the topic of sexual harassment - and gender-based violence more broadly - pointing to respectability politics (the taboo of speaking out), cultural norms, shame and the digital barrier as explanations for this perceived silence.

But, does that perception match reality?

The lack of universal access to Twitter, for example, didn't stop South African women from using the social media platform to proclaim that #MenAreTrash as the number of women who were presumed missing then later found dead, killed by their partners, rose.

Explaining the genesis of the hashtag, writer Rufaro Samanga said: "[Violence] is a reality to which many South African women have become accustomed in one form or the other. South Africa has the highest number of women who are murdered at the hands of their partners in the world."

So if - in the face of endemic levels of violence against women and girls - action is being taken, who are the women and organisations leading the fight to end gender violence? And what can the rest of the world learn from them?

'Cut off your hand'

Mariam Kirollos is known for her work mobilising volunteers to protect women participating in the Tahrir Square uprising in Cairo, where she was recorded chanting in 2012: "Harassment will not do you good, try again and we'll cut off your hand!" But the chant was less about violence and more about voice, the young Egyptian feminist says, echoing another popular chant: "A woman's voice is not a sacrilege, it is a revolution, a revolution!"

Kirollos is a cofounder of a group called Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment and Assault. Beyond protesting against a government it sees as illegitimate, they were also demonstrating against the normalisation of violence - the casual, everyday reality of assault and harassment on Cairo's streets.

But to speak of the abuse is not enough, it is important that the language of the law also changes, and in Egypt, the lexicon around sexual harassment was sorely lacking, Kirollos explains. "This conceptual and lexical opaqueness of the meaning of the term reveals the multiple layers of denial that allowed a violative behaviour to be a normative one, wildly spread, particularly with the absence of a law to explicitly define it."

Reviewing the language of the law is just as important outside the African context. In the UK, for example, despite the existence of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the anti-discrimination legislation), which recognises seven protected classes or groups, a year-long review of the sex discrimination law by the Fawcett Society found "if someone is discriminated against because of more than one aspect of their identity, they are not protected by the law".

This lack of intersectionality means the discrimination women of colour face is compounded by the challenges they face when seeking justice.

Anti-FGM campaign

In The Gambia, anti-FGM campaigner Jaha Dukureh's journey began with a campaign to make female genital mutilation illegal. Attracting international media attention and the support of former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Dukureh's campaign found success in November 2015 when former Gambian president, Yahya Jammeh, announced the practice would be outlawed.

More recently, the campaigner has called on the media not to resort to easy narratives around religion and violence against women. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Dukureh, who is herself an FGM survivor, said: "The biggest myth is that [FGM] is a religious obligation only practised by Muslims and poor Africans that don't know anything."

To counter these myths at the community level, Dukureh added: "Communities need to learn from someone they know won't lie to them. It's about bringing people into the community who can help us understand."

The pervasiveness of sexual harassment and sexual violence has led to new alliances being formed. The Time's Up campaign saw actresses team up with activists on the red carpet at Hollywood's award nights, ostensibly to use the visibility of the former to champion the work of the latter.

We have yet to see if, as Dukureh says, the lives and stories of survivors and campaigners will be worth more than photo ops. "Respect is what has been lacking for years when tackling FGM. It is important for activists to be careful with the media and not to sensationalise FGM and survivors."

Tackling GBV

Across in East Africa, the GBV Prevention Network has sought to have gender-based violence (GBV) recognised as a "complex and urgent form of systemic oppression against women and girls". While #MeToo, #HerToo and #AidToo have all clawed open space for victims to be believed rather than blamed, ensuing discussions invariably have focused on individual perpetrators rather than systemic root causes.

Here, the work of Jean Kemitare, programme manager at GBV Prevention Network, and colleagues highlights the challenges that extend beyond the individual: "Historically, and to date, girls and women have a subordinate status in society," the Ugandan Kemitare says.

"Men are raised to believe that they are entitled to different types of privileges than women, including obedience within the home, access to sex, and control of all family matters. Almost every aspect of our society - including families, schools, religious institutions, media and the government - reinforces these roles for women and men making violence against women seem normal and acceptable."

Recognising as pervasive the notion that boys are better than girls (manifest in the UK's recent public debate about the gender pay gap) and how it is reinforced in society - from advertising to the gender makeup of boards - underlines that there is no freedom from sexual harassment without confronting the patriarchy.

African feminists know this well and have been speaking on these issues in local, regional and global spaces. Conversations are also happening online, where hashtags such as #Afrifem and #FeministSparks provide insight into African feminists' words and world views. It is these voices that need to be centred in global discussions.

Source: ALJAZEERA