Celebrities back tampon rebels of Zimbabwe

The Sunday Times ^ | May 7, 2006 | Christina Lamb

[MadIvan]

SHE has been arrested 22 times, tortured so badly that her front teeth were knocked into her nose and had an AK-47 thrust up her vagina until she bled. Thabitha Khumalo’s crime: to campaign against a critical shortage of tampons and sanitary towels in Zimbabwe, one of the least talked about and most severe side-effects for women of the country’s economic crisis.

Now her cause has been taken up in Britain by celebrities including the actors Anna Chancellor, Gillian Anderson, Prunella Scales and Jeremy Irons.

Later this month they will launch “Dignity. Period!”, a fundraising campaign to buy sanitary products for Zimbabwe’s women. It will start with a night of entertainment at the 20th Century theatre in Notting Hill, west London, hosted by Stephen Fry.

So desperate is the situation that women are being forced to use rolled-up pieces of newspaper. Zimbabwe already has the world’s lowest life expectancy for women — 34 — and Khumalo believes these unhygienic practices could make it drop to as low as 20 because infections will make them more vulnerable to HIV. “It’s a time bomb,” she said. The shortage is forcing schoolgirls to stay at home when they start menstruating.

The crisis began in 1999 when Johnson & Johnson, the healthcare manufacturer, pulled out of the country because of the worsening economic situation. Zimbabwe then had to import products from neighbouring South Africa. But the collapse of the currency and the world’s highest inflation, now more than 1,000%, have made the products unaffordable to all but the elite.

In a country where the minimum wage is Z$6m (£17.14) a month, the cost of a box of 20 tampons is Z$3m. “Who in their right mind is going to spend half their earnings on tampons?” asked Khumalo. “As it is most people can only afford to eat once a day. Women are being forced to choose between their own health and the survival of their family.”

Khumalo, 45, general secretary of the Women’s Advisory Council of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and a mother of two, started her campaign after she saw a woman walking awkwardly on the street: “She told me she was going home from work because she had her period and could no longer afford sanitary protection or cotton wool.”

When an MP raised the issue in parliament, government ministers fell about laughing and dismissed the matter. Khumalo has tried to highlight it through public meetings and distributing scarves printed with demands for affordable sanitary wear. As a result she has been repeatedly arrested and beaten, but refuses to be deterred.

[Khurkris]

bookmark for backhoe's post

[backhoe]

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The american indians had huts the women went into and stayed while they had their period.

I wonder if that isolation included a few days beforehand. This could be a tradition to reconsider bringing back.

[sure_fine]

Later this month they will launch “Dignity. Period!”, a fundraising campaign to buy sanitary products for Zimbabwe’s women






don't want to rust those AK-47's

[ikka]

The crisis began in 1999 when Johnson & Johnson, the healthcare manufacturer, pulled out of the country because of the worsening economic situation.

Uh no, the crisis began when they allowed Mugabe to stay on as Thug-For-Life.

Rather than donate tampons, they should be taking a few hundred thousand and hiring a professional assassin to take out Mugabe.

[bert]

Guns or butter

Medicine or rent

Tampons or rice

The beat goes on.....

[Fawn]

The don't have toilet paper in Iraq. I was told never to shake anyones hand over there....especially the left hand?

[noobiangod]

Do they have "social justice" yet? Isn't that what they were supposed to get by voting in that mugabe tyrant and killing/driving off all the white people?

[Malacoda]

I assume they use something like these:

http://shop.moonhutnaturals.com/

The hippies down the street try to sell these door-to-door occasionally.

[Nextrush]

Mugabe hangs on, but for how long. The black led opponents are organizing, occasionally the BBC gets smuggled reports out and they showed a meeting calling for "non-violent reisistance."

Mugabe is trying to win the few whites back by actually offering them land to farm, after he took all their farms away from them.

He needs to be taken out for good. These celebrities should be paying for mercenaries along with the pads and tampons.

[AnnaZ]

That was my point... Cotton. Wool. i.e. Fabric. These poor women don't even have that.

It's a hideous topic. I am not one of those "oooh, let it flow with the moon" types of women, and am loath to even discuss it, yet I am appalled. I cannot imagine some poor woman, in the 21st century having to a) have to publicly fight for the problem because b) the going sanitary choice is rolled-up newspaper. Dear God.

[AnnaZ]

Peat moss? Any relation to Kate moss?

No, that's Pete Doherty, and mercifully they're not related yet.

[AnnaZ]

Yes, we should pray. But you're right... some people just need killin'.

[marc costanzo]

The Canadians made a sh!t awfull cheapo miniseries adaption of the Frank Herbert classic .

Bad actors
cheese-ball spfx
too much CGI
way to many conspiricy subplots

- - all in all, a typical Canadian production !

[marc costanzo]

>>to tell you the truth i woulda just shut up about the tampons rather than get tortured about it. less painful bleeding<<


Very funny !

[modest proposal]

I am female and I totally agree

I would enjoy having a hut to be cranky in...hopefully no other cranky women would be in it as well..that could be trouble

[When do we get liberated?]

What a great idea. I think menstrating women here should go stay in a special hotel too.

[Sir Gawain]

Would somebody hurry up and assassinate Mugabe?

[headsonpikes]

I see a golden opportunity for Prince Charles to take the lead in this Commonwealth issue.

It would be his hystoric moment to define himself as heir-abhorrent, er, heir-apparent!