Thread by @NewsHawksLive

#Hypocrisy
When opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa joked he would give President Emmerson Mnangagwa his sister if he won in 2018, women activists were outraged, but when Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga's estranged wife Marry Mubaiwa is being crushed they are quiet.

Under normal circumstances women's groups should be taking the lead on the Marry issue because of their special interest in women issues, but men also ought to be vocal as well. However, women are quiet, except for muffled protests here and there, but certainly not as outraged.

Again the women and human rights groups were loud and sounded outraged when Chamisa appeared to be grabbing a microphone from his wife at a rally. They immediately reacted with anger and noise, but now they are muted. This has raised questions on their acts and moral principles.

At a time when huge focus is on how women are held back and treated unfairly at home and workplaces, Zimbabwean women should have risen in outrage and protest on Marry's tragedy, but they are subdued and voiceless on the tragic case, now a scar on the conscience of the nation.

While women shout "empower women", "girl power" and "#unapologetic", they are simply unable or unwilling, or both, to help a woman - Marry - being crushed in broad daylight over marital affairs in which the state machinery has been harnessed to settle family and personal issues.

The Marry affair, now a scandal of tragic proportions, is essentially about social power relations and gender, structural gender imbalances, equity and equality, abuse of office and power, human rights and human decency, indeed the dearth, or even so death, of Ubuntu or humanity.

This has led to criticism that Zimbabwean women activists are mostly hypocrites who major in minors amd make self-serving noises instead of tackling fundamental issues affecting women and their rights, and human rights at large.
Men are also on the firing line over this issue.

Anywhere in the civilised world where women's rights are respected and society has a conscience, the Marry affair would be a big scandal which would have triggered national outrage, women activists protests, human rights actions and fierce debate, but in Zimbabwe it's on mute.