



By Daniel Makamba

BINDURA – Feminist activist have expressed doubt and uncertainty over the use of social media in movement building, popularizing of their ideologies and standpoints as well as advocacy work especially targeting women in rural areas, despite having the internet platforms available to address what they feel to be a social imbalance.

Though social media has been hailed for its effectiveness in cutting distance and time when it comes to spreading information, for women in rural areas it is not yet the best channel for unpacking the complexities of discourses such as the ones which feminists’ movements call for.

This came to light during the recently held Intergenerational Feminist Indaba under Just Associates (JASS) in Bindura held under the theme, “ Feminist Thinking as a tool for strengthening women’s voice and power: Reflections from the Post-Independence Feminist Movement in Zimbabwe.

According to feminist activist, Winnet Shamhuyarira, there is still need to conduct movement building from grassroots level through the physical participation due to the complexity of the discourses which cannot be effectively addressed by social media.

“Feminists movement building is still a discourse that has to be better spread by the direct involvement of women in the dialogue, due to the nature of the ideology we feel that the struggle will not be fully fought by social media which has a number of limitations especially in addressing women in rural areas.

“The best means of unpacking our ideologies is by conducting workshops which gives us a chance to explain, teach and drive home the real issues that we advocate for, the majority of people still need to be taught about feminism as there is a difficulty in distinguishing between, feminism and gender,” said Shamhuyarira.

Women in rural areas are still behind in catching up with technological advancement especially at the level of certain advocacy dialogues which has seen social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook mainly used for entertainment and gossip than as means of learning.

Another women who attended the Indaba concurred to the belief that social media cannot effectively challenge feminist issues currently plaguing the woman in rural areas.

“Mainly because of the traditional, cultural and religious limitations that characterizes our day to day lives as women in rural areas, the use of internet platforms in advocating for feminists movements is not a good idea.

“Low literacy levels, poor English communication and issues of affordability among the women is a main factor which hinders movement building among feminists groups in rural areas, for example a woman in Dotito, Mukumbura even in Kanyemba cannot be won to join the movement by a mere message on WhatsApp but rather education workshops brings them face to face with the reality of feminist issues,” said one women who attended the Indaba.

The Feminist movement simply known as Feminism refers to a series of political campaigns for reforms on issues affecting women per se, in Zimbabwe feminist writers like Tsitsi Dangarembwa has championed women issues in her literature Nervous Conditions.