'Stand up for your rights', Nasha urges women

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Wednesday December 10, 2008 00:00

She was speaking at the launch of the Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA)'s women commission at an event held at the Maharaj Rest Hall in Gaborone on Monday. 

'Women have the power in politics because they have the numbers. In all the political parties, about 60 percent of the voters are women.

At the branch and constituencies, it is the men who are holding top positions while the majority of the voters are women who voted against their fellow women who stood against those men,' Nasha said, adding that the women who show interest in standing up against men in top positions in politics continue to be addressed as 'this woman', regardless of how much they have achieved in their careers.

Nasha, firing on all cylinders, reported that there have been countless seminars for women on any topic that one could think of. 'We have run countless seminars for women on anything you can think of from public speaking to how to sell yourself, but we cannot look back and say 'here are the fruits of what we planted'. The question is why?' she asked.

She told the women that they are not serious about empowering each other. 'Are we dull that we need a lot of seminars to understand what we really need?' Nasha asked in frustration.

She said that when they requested the women to vote for each other for positions in council across party lines, the women went and reported to their male counterparts that they have been requested to vote for people from other parties.

Nasha revealed that when she took over the Ministry of Local Government, she made it a point to nominate more women to balance the scales in councils but was met with hostility from both men and women. 'You women joined the men who were insulting me over the decision,' she said.

The minister said that recently, the women's caucus was asked to send a delegation of women to America, but some people were furious about a woman who was chosen.

'They wanted to know why we were sending that woman from their party and said instead we should have asked them which woman to send. We told them we were sending women who are willing and active in politics,' Nasha stated.

She asked why the question of quality often crops up when people are talking about women, but it is not raised when it is men who are the topic of discussion.

'I do not have anything against women, but I have problems with their bad attitude against other women who want to progress,' she stated.

The minister requested the councillors to ask their political parties to stop making them stand for elections in difficult wards that they know they are bound to lose. She told them that they are the ones who raise money for the parties, they sing during the campaigns and cook for everyone.

'Why can't you speak out and be heard? The primary elections are over and there are no women candidates,' she observed.

She told the women to stand up and talk for themselves and everyone will follow and heed their call. 'If you sit and find fault with everyone else, it will never happen for you. The buck stops with you, the individuals,' she said.

She told the women about how they fought for women's rights like maternity leaves, getting the same salaries as men depending on their qualifications and not their gender, and wearing pants in the government offices, something which was not allowed then.
'There were only a few of us back then, but we fought and got what we wanted. Now that you are many in the cause, why can't you fight?' Nasha quizzed the women who nodded in agreement.