Domestic violence

'We will deal with that later,'said the MDC-T national organising secretary, Abedinico Bhebhe.

Those are the words that came from one of the male politicians aimed at Thabitha Khumalo who had been stripped naked.We are talking about a woman  who has been a victim of domestic violence from the alleged Zanu PF supporters.Is it because she is a woman that she has to receive attention later as it seems there are things which come first that need more attention than her being a victim of violence, worse this is coming from a fellow member of her party.

It is really absurd if not surprisingly bluffing that male politicians do not want to be united with their female counterparts.We are busy pushing for women rights but to other male politicians the word of equality and equity are swept by the wind or unheard of.

Thabitha Khumalo

In this instance it seems like Khumalo chose to be a victim of this violence she has faced.This shows that there is still a long way for male and female politicians to be united even if they fight for the same cause.To add onto that ,the headline is very subjective  as it denotes that Thabitha undressed herself and it was deliberate.It reads 'Khumalo strips at rally.'

The media is being insensitive and if one can ask why the headline in The Herald was written in this manner,the answer lies in the political economy theory which suggest that he who owns the piper dictates the tune .

We also need to ask ourselves who the media owners are in this country and in most cases they owners are of  the patriarchal society and hence they love keeping the status quo.This shows however that there is a serious problem about the media in general.Women are always portrayed  in bad as compared to their male counterparts.The media is not fair at all in the representation of male and female politicians and something has to be done about it However change is not possible if women themselves do not take a stand and fight for their rights.As long as the patriarchal society runs the world ,including the media, the word women rights is nothing but a cliche.It is just a word that has lost its meaning or we can say a word that never had a meaning.