Let’s celebrate Women’s Month H-METRO

TODAY marks the beginning of Women’s Month.

It’s a special month highlighted by the International Women’s Day (IWD) commemorations celebrated on March 8 every year.

Instead of just a one-off event on March 8, activists, policymakers and governments now dedicate the whole month to observe and celebrate women’s rights.

It’s a special month when women’s contributions and success stories around the world are celebrated.

This is also the time when we expect women to speak with one voice as they step up campaigns for gender-based equality around the world.

In Zimbabwe, this is the right time to highlight the success stories of influential women as well as their challenges.

This year’s Women’s Month got a boost from the National Prosecuting Authority, which is ready to help the victims of sexual assault to speak out and expose perpetrators.

The continued suffering of women should be quickly addressed to ensure they are safe and can live their lives freely without any fear.

We also expect men to play their part and this means also appreciating that women can achieve big things in our world.

It also means that men should accept that women are not second-class human beings and they are just as capable, as their male counterparts, to provide leadership roles in any field.

The cooperation of men is very important because it creates a conducive environment for women to pursue their dreams and take on the world.

Men should never block or shatter women’s dreams through sexual harassment and other forms of abuse.

Women’s rights should be observed daily while their success stories should be celebrated on a daily basis.

Highlighting these stories is meant to ensure that we inspire other women to excel in various sectors.

Focused women have defied the odds by making a massive impression in the fields which used to be dominated by their male counterparts.

These fields include mining, agriculture and even in sports circles.

They have shown that they can do as well as their male counterparts and, in some cases, even perform better.

It’s important that there is respect towards women.

After all, they constitute the biggest constituency of our population in Zimbabwe and that alone should tell us that they should always be big players in just about everything in the country.

We should not wait for March to honour women but it should be a tradition to respect their rights daily.

This year’s month-long celebrations come at a time when we are fighting juvenile rape, child marriages as well as sexual harassment.

We have seen a surge in these cases in Zimbabwe and this is a worrying thing.

We can’t afford to let this continue when we can easily address these issues.

The sad reality is that many women don’t speak out about these issues when they are abused.

That should be in the past as we forge into a future in which women are respected and allowed to chase their goals.