I read with great relief about the sentencing to an effective eight months in jail of Blessing Chinodakufa and Marvellous Kandemiri, the touts who undressed a young woman they said was improperly dressed.
Saturday Dialogue with Ropafadzo Mapimhidze
This undoubtedly sends a strong message to all touts that are in the habit of using foul language and harassing women passengers who are sometimes too scared to travel unaccompanied.
Although most women feel the eight month penalty is too lenient, the magistrate who presided over this case must be applauded for sending this loud message since society generally overlooks such matters and blame often shifted to the woman.
Every human being, a Zimbabwean citizen to be more precise, has the right to dress in any manner they please to. But some men are generally in the habit of dictating what women should or not wear, insisting that they cover their bodies because they allege that culture expects them to conform to certain clothing style.
However, what we call that culture, is not static and changes to suit situations and hence the reason why we no longer wear the old ancient clothes our ancestors adorned, that only covered their genitals while the rest of their bodies were exposed.
And when I was growing up, my mother and her peers, who included my aunts from both the paternal and maternal side of the family, wore mini dresses because it was fashionable in the 60s and 70s.
In fact if everyone was to peruse through photo albums that were taken during those days, you will be surprised to see how mini dresses and skirts dominated those days.
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Wearing a mini skirt or dress does not imply that a woman is of loose moral and even if she is who are we to judge? The footage of this incident went viral on the social media platforms and frankly speaking, what this woman wore does not even fall in the category of a mini dress.
Although this woman tried to pull her dress down to cover her body, these rowdy elements stopped her from doing so as they continued pulling the dress up, exposing her panties.
These people went further to pull her pants down when a young man from the crowd came forward to rescue her. This man, who I think should be given due recognition for trying to fight off these rowdy people, dragged her into a nearby kombi, but the excited touts came and dragged her out hurling insults at her.
Such is the mob mentality that exists at these bus terminuses’ which sometimes happen in full view of law enforcement agents.
Any law abiding citizen should have reacted to this particular scene, but people just watched with some blaming the woman for bringing this rough action upon her.
Kombi crews are some of the most insensitive and hard skinned people in the transport sector that sometimes provoke women with fuller figures to the most degrading treatment.
I once heard a tout tell some elderly woman that she was too big to sit in the minibus unless she wanted to pay double the fare.
Pregnant women also bear the brunt of insults from these touts when they complain about the bumpy rides and yet we all just watch helplessly as they get harangued left, right and centre.
This conspiracy of silence cannot continue in a democratic country like Zimbabwe where laws clearly state loudly that all citizens have the right to express themselves in any way whatsoever.
These incidents are, however, not confined to Zimbabwe alone. I once went to Zambia and watched a foreign woman who was wearing some shorts being jeered at by touts at Kamwala Bus Terminus, a scene that really traumatised me. Unfortunately, some women are also part of this group of people that think that wearing miniskirts sends wrong messages to men and argue that that has contributed to a surge in rape cases.
But the truth is that rape has nothing to do with miniskirts. It is a power game where men want to dictate what women should do, sometimes hiding behind culture to suit their arguments.
Most Arab countries have strict laws based on Sharia Law that require women to wear a head scarf and long clothes that do not reveal the woman’s bodily shape.
Yet some of these countries like Saudi Arabia have one the highest rape cases in the world. Whether or not patriarchal views decide that women wear loose long clothing, they still get raped in their millions every year worldwide.
Magistrate Rekina Dzikiti on Thursday suspended four months of the touts’ 12 month sentences on condition of good behaviour which means that these touts will serve an effective eight-month jail terms each.
This violence against women that manifests in harassment, violence, and bullying, booing, undressing and hurling insults is a reflection of lawlessness and it is imperative for law enforcement agents to arrest anyone who publicly targets and violates law abiding citizensin such a way.
In passing sentence, Dzikiti said the conduct shown by the duo when they undressed the woman at 4th Street (renamed Simon Muzenda) bus rank had deeply traumatised the woman.
“The circumstance under which this offence was committed shows a barbaric and diabolic attitude on the part of the accused persons,” Newsday reported yesterday.
“The complainant was so traumatised and you can never know the depth of that trauma. If it was not for the videos (of the incident) we would have never known the culprits.”
She also said the offence demanded that the offenders be imprisoned because a non-custodial sentence would trivialise the offence.
Chinodakufa and Kandemiri were arrested after a leaked video footage of the incident went viral on social media networks resulting in the complainant filing a report shortly afterwards.
It is good riddance to the jailed touts. Feedback:[email protected]
