Date
10.03.2024

The Patriarchy is Alive and Thriving

Austria
East Africa
Gender Equality

It was the thriving patriarchy that brought the Ugandan human rights activist Rita Hope Aciro-Lakor, Claudia Thallmayer from WIDE, a developmental policy network for women’s rights and feminist perspectives, as well as many eager guests into a room together. In the week of International Women’s Day, WIDE and horizont3000 organised a discussion with Aciro under the topic “Gender Backlash in Uganda- Feminist perspectives from Uganda”. Gender-based violence and an emphasis on teenage pregnancies, women’s health, land and property rights, girls’ education and women’s leadership were some of points that fell under this.

Questions from the audience were also taken throughout the discussion. When a young Ugandan activist in the audience asked Aciro about coping mechanisms as an activist in a potentially challenging political environment in Uganda, she pointed her towards two things. The first was to watch your back and the second to gather people around you who have your back. She said the most important thing as an activist is to build a network of people who will stand alongside you.

Uganda Women's Network

This advice is one that Aciro follows herself as the executive director of the Uganda Women's Network (UWONET). One of the phrases that she repeated during the event was that women are not a homogenous group. We do not face the same realities and therefore it needs multiple approaches to better the position of women. However, and this is what Aciro provides with UWONET, they need to be represented und supported in their differing realities. As an advocacy organisation, it brings together Ugandan organisations that are working towards gender equality and equity and coordinates collective action among them.

It was while talking about gender-based violence that Aciro mentioned that the patriarchy is alive and thriving, earning a chuckle from the interviewer and some knowing, agreeing nods from the audience. Just as women’s networks are growing stronger, the patriarchy is watching, observing and adjusting its tactics. She explained that while yes, physical gender-based violence is still ongoing in its “traditional” form, and women’s bodily autonomy is still being restricted, gender-based violence has also changed. It is time that the attention is also shifted to economic violence which women are exposed to.

This is a key working area of UWONET, which is supported by horizont3000; improving women’s access to land and property rights which means bettering their economic stance. In Uganda women make up a large majority of the agricultural sector, however their access to economic resources is limited. The conflicts that arise from these land disputes can be physically and economically dangerous to women and difficult to resolve since mostly only informal justice systems are in place. One of the activities in the projects is therefore training actors of these informal justice systems on women’s rights.

Thank you to Rita, as well as WIDE for this opportunity to learn and exchange on feminist perspectives from Uganda. It was a great reminder to continue building our networks so that we can dismantle the patriarchy together.

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