Yesterday was the 100th commemoration of International Women’s Day.

But after 100 years recognising the need for women’s rights and gender equality, what do women have to show for it?

In Zimbabwe, not much.

Female participants in a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) march in honour of the day were forced to strip by male police officers.

According to SW Radio Africa:

Three women who participated in a Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) protest march were forced to strip off their clothes in the city centre of Bulawayo by the police, their regional leader has said. One of the three is heavily pregnant. The women were part of a march to commemorate International Women’s Day, which saw a total of 34 members of the group arrested, despite a High Court order saying the march could go-ahead. Barbara Tanyanyiwa of the ZCTU’s Regional Women’s Advisory Council, said trouble began when the police appeared and began dispersing them, and then three of their members were apprehended. “When they were going to the gathering point, that is Jason Moyo and Third Avenue, they were confronted by plain clothes policemen who said they should remove their ZCTU t-shirts.

Read more from SW Radio Africa

Also in Bulawayo, three members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise who were arrested at a 7 March Women’s Day protest were held in custody for the second night in a row – even though the police had refused to prosecute the case. The three were held in Bulawayo central police station. According to WOZA, “There is no flushing toilets; no food and we have to bring food in to every meal and risk theft of this food by officers; no blankets; no access to medication by those on anti retrovirals; no access to water; filthy cells and harassment by police officers.  They have not had the right to see a lawyer.” Read more from WOZA

What difference has 100 years of women’s days made if even on this one day of the year women continued to be harassed, victimised and mistreated?

The Arts, Social Media, and Cultural Activism for a Creative Civil Society
24 – 25 February 2011

HIVOS in partnership with the Norwegian Embassy conducted a workshop with artists, activists and journalists in order to encourage and promote the use of social media tools such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook amongst arts and media practitioners. With traditional media being state controlled there is little room for alternative voices to be heard by ordinary Zimbabweans.

The aims of the workshop were to examine the relationship between the arts, media communication and technology, as a catalyst for national dialogue and active civil society participation; to explore all possible ways in which new media could be used to disseminate information that supports the democratisation process in Zimbabwe, and finally to encourage dialogue between artists, arts organisations, media practitioners and civil society organisations. Among the presenters were Chris Kabwato, media activist Takura Zangazha, and protest poet Farai ‘Cde. Fatso’ Munro.

Chris Kabwato from Rhodes University gave a presentation on social and new media tools and their uses. He noted the problems of access, and that it was drawn along gender and economic lines, with greater access being afforded in urban areas. Mr. Kabwato also said that the new technology brought with cultural and political changes as in the cases of Tunisia and Egypt. “The Internet is also changing our business models, in the publishing industry it is changing our production, publication and distribution models.” He further noted. He described how these tools had become communications game changers and gave the example of Wikipedia, whose users generate the sites content. It had changed the site’s audience from being passive consumers of information to active producers of content. He went on to discuss Craig’s List, a free classified ads site that was changing the business model for newspapers and magazines. He stated that advertising had moved from print to the web, and it was no longer supporting content.

In his remarks media activist Takura Zhangazha pointed out that media arts and culture were about freedom of expression. In their attempts to retain power, governments both before and after independence limited this freedom through several pieces of legislation. Currently this included POSA, AIPPA, BSA, the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act. As such the placement of Freedom of Expression was in a highly politicised, repressed and difficult space. With the environment being so polarized between political parties, media and arts practitioners also found themselves self-censoring to survive. Mr. Zhangazha stated that a key problem in Zimbabwe today was the way in which the economic environment has affected the creativity of artists, and noted the influence of civil society organisations as well as political parties, which led artists to create to an agenda. He went on to describe the competing hegemonic agendas of political parties and how the media and artists were complicit in their formulation and promulgation.

In his presentation, titled the revolution via twitter – the role of new media in arts and activism, protest poet Cde Fatso began by defining the meaning of social and new media. He briefly reflected on the role played by social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in the revolutions in North Africa. Finally he showed how he had incorporated other less well know tools such as Reverbnation and CrowdFunder into his business model as an artist.

Yesterday we shared with our subscribers the news about 39 of the 45 treason charge detainees being released. However, as we noted, Munyaradzi Gwisai of the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) and 5 others remain in custody.

Here are some of the responses we received:

• This is wonderful news!
• Great news! We wait for the 6. Keep up the spirit, keep up the fight!
• Thanks be to God. We pray for the remaining 6 to be granted freedom.
• Let’s keep on praying for the remaining ones.
• God is great.
• Time is on our side, we must be patient.
• We will win.
• The Almighty God’s power will deliver them.
• Acts 12 v 5-11 – I mean the same God who did it then will surely even today. Heb 13 v 8.
• Surely one day all of us will be free from bondage.
• The Almighty is a loving and caring Father who is going to lead us out of bondage like he did the Israelites out of Egypt!
• Thank you. Peace to the remaining 6.
• We pray for peace and a good government. Can the Almighty God bless all and release poverty and hunger for many of us to remember his Greatness. Amen.
• God is for us.
• Thank God.
• This is ridiculous. It’s meant to frustrate any meaningful activism here. Kuvhunduka chati kwacha.
• God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. He is doing it for the second time. The third time will be for all who are living in bondage myself included.
• They’ll detain even millions. Know your environment and characters. Action!
• Not fair they must all be relased. God is watching.
• No to treason. If that is the case we are not yet independent. No freedom. So we will go for it. What I know is God is watching. We are praying for their release.
• Certainly they’ll win their case because a remote control isn’t a weapon to threaten the security of the nation let alone the government. It’s a mockery of our justice system. Viva Munya.
• That’s very bad. How is the police force operating just detaining people for the sake of pleasing Zanu PF. Bad recipe.
• Gwisai demonstrated, so has Mugabe. Free him.
• We are with you guys. They cannot kill your spirit. Gwisai, the revolutionary fire in you can never be quenched by any force, whehter natural or supernatural. All African dictators must go this year!
• Shame to the spin doctor, he represents everything bad & evil in this country. To the 45 hang in there we’re with you in our prayers.
• Thank God let’s hope the remaining 6 will be released too.
• That’s better now. We hope and pray that the remaining will be released soon. Let justice prevail.
• Thanks the Almighty and your update.
• Fear of the people is driving them crazy and most dangerous. The masses keep quiet at their own peril. Todaay it’s Gwisai tomorrow it’s you & me!

I am thrilled to report the release of our colleague Lenard Kamwendo and 38 other detainees who had been facing treason charges in the case of the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe)’s Munyaradzi Gwisai and 44 others. In the Magistrate’s court in Harare today, Magistrate Mutevedzi held that there was no reasonable suspicion against 39 of the detainees, and they have been released.

But Gwisai, Hopewell Gumbo of ZIMCODD and 4 others are still being held in custody. They will not appear in court again until 21 March – over a month since they were arrested for holding a meeting in which they discussed recent events in Tunisia and Egypt. They also deserve to be going home today. Free the 6 now.

It’s days like this that make me wish I could believe in something. Instead, my every eyelash and rainbow and first star wish, my deepest hope and greatest intention have all been going for the same thing for the past 17 days. I need this to be the day the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe)’s Munyaradzi Gwisai, ZIMCODD’s Hopewell Gumbo, our colleague Lenard Kamwendo and the 42 others who have been charged with treason go home.

Solidarity messages for Munyaradzi Gwisai of the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) and the 44 others who have been charged with treason continue to pour in. Here are a few more:

• Inotambika Boyz. Ibhora rembabvu ukatsikwa unogona kuputika chigunwe but still ibhora mberi.
• The detention of the 45 people is unwarranted and does not merely show that the regime is desperate but also clearly shows its repressive and autocratic nature. The people have freedom of expression and association and nobody, however great and powerful, should deprive them of their inalienable rights.
• Mugabe should understand he doesn’t own this country and people no longer like him and his band of thugs. He should free all political prisoners or he faces our unarmed wrath now.
• We are praying for you guys. God is up there. One day He will say enough is enough. We support you.
• This is total madness and a desperate move by Zanu PF. I condemn the treason charge.
• The earth belongs to the people not to the leaders, so does this country. The Lord will appoint a redeemer – Judges v 1-25
• It’s our right to know what goes around because it also comes around.
• We condemn the arrest and detention of activists as the suppression of human rights at its worst.
• That’s total abuse of human rights at the highest level.
• Release the detained. Zimbabwe is not a chieftainship we are a (democracy). The treason crap is Satanic.
• No way these people must be released. Rule of law must be used.
• I commend Mr Gwisai and the rest of the detainees for having the initiative to want to change our Zimbabwe situation. Keep the faith.
• It’s strange that people who claim to have liberated us still use repression against us. What are they afraid of? People power rules supreme.
• There is no freedom or democracy.
• Zim dictatorship is now panicking they can only delay but not stop a revolution.
• Enough is enough to dictatorship. Our God will help us get freedom even through the Egyptian style. It’s high time we should unite against dictatorship.
• I support you all.
• On the subject of “The 45″ my deep concern is that there is NOTHING comming from the Prime Minister OR the Minister of Home Affairs. Although the MDC has submitted a strong statement the question arises what about the Governments stance.Have they forgotten who put them where they are and for what?
• Kuvhunduka chatikwara hunge une katurike. Vanotyeyi vanosungira vanhu kuona vidio kana firimu raanoda?