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.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Remember when ladies were menstruating, they were said to be on the rag?

Here in this first world country, I don't remember my Mother ever possessing a box of koteks much less Tampons, I would have surely have noticed the box.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

This is getting exhausting.

How many times and for how many years do we tolerate these Leftist dictators and have to take care of their victims? One campaign follows another and the root cause is never solved.

Why in the name of he77 do we not just put an end to these dictatorships?

If we're going to be accused of being imperialistic, we may as well imperialize. Most of these rathole nations would be better off for it.

[Minutemen]

Ah, they possesed them but ladies in days past did not leave them out for the whole world to see.

[hinckley buzzard]

Zimbabwe, where cruelty and absurdity go hand in hand.

Indeed. Zimbabwe is a breathtaking documentary waiting to be done. If only there was a film industry still alive somewhere...

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I agree that this is serious -- one of the many deprivations that Zimbabweans are suffering under. However, there are probably better alternatives. Please read my post # 38. I personally knew several aboriginals who have used sphagnum (peat) moss for diaper liners. They preferred this traditional material to early disposable diapers for several reasons: it prevented diaper rash, it was free, it is very absorbent (today's gel liners are probably more absorbent -- which just means you have to use more moss than gel), it is completely biodegradable, and it was how they and their ancestors did things. I never asked them about use in sanitary napkins (the native women would never have discussed such topics with a man) -- but it was used for that purpose.

After my posting, I did a bit of a Google search and discovered that Johnson & Johnson actually used sphagnum moss in a line of sanitary napkins for a while in the early 1990s.

The watchword for third-world assistance is "appropriate technologies". The point I was trying to make is that it would be far more helpful for the celebrity do-gooders to help develop these appropriate technologies, rather than creating a dependency on a technology that Zimbabwean women cannot afford. There must be some suitable local material, which would provide sanitary protection. E.g., dried seaweed can be used for bandages in survival situations, where there is no peat moss available. http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/wilderness/survival/first.htm#bleeding

[AnnaZ]

Some of us still don't.

[AnnaZ]

I appreciate your sentiments, and the reasoning behind them, but I would prefer to have folks meet us here in the 21st century.

It's bad enough that women have to deal with this every 28 days, need it be even worse? Survival gear is one thing, but peat moss or seaweed on a regular basis? Eeewwww...

[colorado tanker]

Gotta love Hollywood. The brutal dictatorship, the killings, the land thefts, the stolen elections, the food shortages didn't get to them as much as a tampon shortage.

[r9etb]

I suppose these celebrities can't be troubled to back a "Mugabe. Out!" campaign.