Heavy beer drinking among women alarms men

MEN have complained over high consumption of alcohol among women and have appealed for a reduction in drinking levels.

They observed that some women had lost their cultural values because of drinking excessively.

Some men talked to noted that some women in the country’s capital city were found in taverns as early as 09:00hrs.

James Banda said it was embarrassing for women to be found in drinking places during the day, saying that women were supposed to be respectable people in society.

“Women are supposed to be respectable; some women just embarrass themselves in the presence of their children by shamelessly drinking to the point where they lose their senses.

“The scariest part is they don’t just consume one type of alcohol but anything as long as it is beer,” he said.

Another concerned man, Newman Mutale, said imbibing excessively had resulted in women and mothers failing to be role models to their children as some of them misbehaved in the presence of their children.

Mr Mutale noted that such women were promoters of corrupt morals that were steadily increasing among the youth. But Emelda Makendi of Lusaka argued that many women resorted to beer because they had nothing to do.

She insisted that once women were empowered, they could not involve themselves in such vices. And Zambia National Women’s Lobby board chairperson, Beauty Katebe has condemned the vice. Ms Katebe said it was ‘‘immoral’’ for women to drink heavily, stressing that there was need to sensitise women on alcohol consumption.