Working with a radical agenda the Musasa project, Zimbabwe

Overview

In Zimbabwe, domestic violence is widespread, accepted, and reinforced by police and legal systems. The Musara Project seeks to change this, and is taking a radicalised approach by challenging patriarchy directly through gender workshops. Before, it ran public education campaigns and built relations with the Zimbabwe Republic Police, in addition to offering shelters and counselling to abused women. Now, Musara is challenging land ownership and lobola, or bridewealth, that makes a woman her husband’s property. Stewart analyses why the project is adopting this more radical approach, that includes changes in leadership.

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