International Rural Women S Day Celebrating the Role of Women in Rural Tanzania

International Rural Women’s Day – celebrating the role of Women in rural tanzania

Masasi, Tanzania, November 5,2014 Siraji Nalikame & Martha Maguire, photos by Jumanne Sasita (KIMAS), October 2014

International Rural Women’s day is celebrated around the world on October 15th. This year Concern and KIMAS, our partners in Masasi, held a colourful event, with support from EU funding; full of music, drama, and personal stories.

The event was held in Ulungu villiage in Masasi, Concern and KIMAS wanted to bring rural women to the forefront - to give value and credit to their work and to create a space for discussions and experience sharing to raise awareness to the many challenges that they face. In Tanzania 80percent of women are from rural areas. They are the tillers, the pastoralists and the family unit. They play a vital role in the development and stability of rural areas. However, they are still widely considered as second class citizens in society. Tanzania is traditionally a patriarchal society with many of the communities still abiding by the customary laws; many of which are very discriminatory towards women.

Several mediums were used to inform, as well as entertain, the audience of the challenges facing women in their societies. A theater group, called Lingoti, preformed a show aimed at sending strong positive messages, to both men and women, about respect, role sharing and mutual participation. A choir group sang songs about the impacts of Gender based violence (GBV). Practical information came from the Government staff from the social welfare office who gave a presentation of referral systems in the case of Gender based violence and family conflict at household level, and the Community Development Officer gave a speech on the importance of women’s involvement in governance and decision making in the community as the one of the key aspects of development. In a symbolic gesture to give value and credit to the role of rural women, the guest of honour, Mwajuma Juma, an engineer, presented 10 women from the community with Customary Certificate of Right to Ownership (CCROs) that had been issued through the support from Concern Worldwide’s WSER programme and funded by the EU.

Due to customary practices, regarding inheritance and marriage, women still hold a very tenuous ownership of the land they live and work on. Despite the fact that Tanzania’s Land Act and Village Land Act (both passed in 1999) stipulate women’s right to ownership of land only 8% of titled land in Tanzania is owned by women[1]. Presenting the women with the CCROs was a symbolic way to highlight the importance of women’s right to land and gave a very strong message of change and development to the 466 community members that were there to support, advocate and celebrate the International Rural Women’s Day and the importance of women in rural societies in Tanzania.

[1] IFPRI Discussion Paper ‘Gender Inequalities in Ownership and Control of Land in Africa

Myths versus Reality’ December 2013 last accessed 5/11/14 at 09.00