Wednesday, June 2—Mwanza day 4: More about Kivulini and the Tanzanian political Atmosphere

Wednesday, June 2—Mwanza day 4: More about Kivulini and the Tanzanian political atmosphere

Living in New York I have come to understand issues of gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS and domestic violence in a certain context. But, here I am continually reminded to challenge those assumptions and instead look at issues and ideas with a fresh palate. Kivulini is a very progressive and unique organization in Tanzania. Issues of domestic violence are not easy to address and very culturally sensitive. Therefore, since Kivulini is such a progressive women’s rights organization, I also assumed that their ideas about feminism and female-concerned issues would be similar to organizations in the US.

For example, as I was working on a brochure for Kivulini, I was given feedback from Kivulini staff. A few staff commented that there were no pictures of men in the brochure and it is very important that they are represented. The explanation I received was because “we don’t want to look like a feminist organization or something like that.” Clearly, the ideas of feminism here are different than in the US where an organization like Kivulini would definitely be considered a “feminist” organization. I guess my “this is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt would not have been well received here. Gender roles are still very important here. All of the women wear earrings and dress very femininely. Women are still expected to take care of the house and children while men are the breadwinners. Although Kivulini has a program advocating for women’s economic empowerment as a way to combat domestic violence, many people do not think that a woman should earn more money than her husband because it threatens his self esteem, which is bad for the relationship.

Another interesting difference is that, in Tanzania it is illegal to practice homosexuality here, but men are always holding hands. As far as I know there doesn’t seem to be a gay rights movement here working against the law that homosexuality is illegal. But, strangely enough, men are always holding hands. Apparently this is just a common way for men who are close friends to show affection to each other, but I still find it difficult to both realize that the handholding is not a sign of sexual affection and that if it were, it would be illegal. It’s not that I thought homosexuality would be a widely socially acceptable in Tanzania, but since I didn’t stop to think about it very much, I guess I sort of assumed that there wouldn’t have been an affirmative effort to actually make homosexuality illegal. Another interesting dynamic is that apparently here women can get married to each other. I don’t mean that a man can have more than one wife (this is legal here too), but if one woman cannot have a baby she can marry another women who can have children and they can raise the children together. This is because here children are seen as a sign of social status and wealth, but it still seems like a very odd concept. I will have to look into this idea a lot more and see how common it actually is, and whether or not it is socially acceptable.

On the other hand, abortion here is a totally taboo topic. Abortion is illegal in Tanzania and also not discussed at all (at least not by Kivulini). During small information sessions with the different sections of Kivulini I gently asked if Kivulini does any work with women who have had dangerous illegal abortions or more generally any sort of work with abortions based on a women’s health perspective. I also mentioned the repeat of the global gag rule, incase that was a former barrier for Kivulini. I got a very straightforward short response of “no, abortion isn’t legal so we don’t look at abortion.” In my experiences in the US, any organization that deals with women’s health also look at abortion issues. International NGO’s also address abortion issues, even in countries where abortion is illegal. But, it seems that either local NGO’s are different either because they want to with the government, or because the local culture doesn’t accept abortion. Almost everyone in Mwanza is devotion to their practice of religion, whether Christian, Muslim or Hindu. Perhaps this played a factor in the dynamics of Kivulini and the reason abortion is such a taboo subject. Anyhow, I didn’t push the issue any further in fear of violating a cultural line. I later asked Ingjerd, who has been studying Kivulini for 4 months, and she confirmed that Kivulini is in many ways a conservative women’s rights organization, not pushing the boundaries too much, and not even considering any issues linked to abortion. It seems that it is not just funding concerns, but also local ideological values that drive Kivulini. Of course, this doesn’t degrade the incredible and groundbreaking work of Kivulini, advocating on behalf of women’s rights and against domestic violence in a country that was ranked fourth highest for domestic violence out of 50 countries studied by the World Health Organization. It is just another way in which my preconceptions have been stretched and reformulated.