Women’s Legal Centre celebrates its 20th anniversary
The 20th anniversary
of the Women’s Legal Centre was celebrated with a feminist symposium at the
District 6 Museum.
On Thursday the event was held, there were panel conversations about topics
such as abortion female sexual reproduction, challenges for economic
independence, and women at the forefront of spatial injustice and tenure
security.
The women’s rights manager at NGO ActionAid, Lindelwe Nxumalo, spoke
passionately about women mainly being seen as care workers in homes and societies,
which restricted their access to opportunities to liberate themselves
economically and be in the workforce. The Community Workers Advice Office, Meme
Makhaula, said: “The difficulty of facing with cases of women being sexually
exploited is that these ladies are often defenceless and don’t want to speak
about the sexual abuse they face.”
A representative from Sisonke, Philisiwe Tamari, a support of the Sex
Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (Sweat), mentioned it was often problematic
for sex workers to access basic rights.
“The sex workers in our country are being killed, raped and tortured,
and yet nobody seems to do anything about it because what they do is seen as
unholy. “At Sweat, we want to decrease the discrimination sex workers face in
their communities. That’s why we have created our own community through the
Sisonke group.”
By: Ellouise Muller
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