Sierra Leone’s women struggling for more weight in politics
Posted by reportingtheworldover on March 12, 2009
The region of Kailahun, Sierra Leone, is one of the world’s poorest region. According to the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) 2009 State of the World’s Children report, one in eight Sierra Leonean women die in childbirth, the majority of women are illiterate, and just one in five girls finish secondary school. Yet, there might be light at the endo fo the tunnel.
Women are trying to effect change on the issues that matter to them – maternal mortality, girls’ education, teenage pregnancy, literacy rates for women – by entering political office. Marie Jalloh – representative of the Bombali District – is one of the 17 female member of Parliament.
“We have to advocate for change in the issues that affect us,” she tells. “And we need to take informed decisions about our lives – our health, our children’s education, economic empowerment of women. The best way to do this is by getting into power.”
Not an easy task, though. Candidates standing for a political party are required to be longstanding members. That means theymust have a history of financial contributions to the party, regularly attend meetings and pay local taxes. A number of criteria which automatically bar most women from engaging, as they are too busy running the household to attend meetings, and taxes are paid for by husbands.
Oxfam and local NGOs encourage women to pay local taxes themselves and show women ways to manage their time so they can attend meetings. In Kailahun Oxfam has given some women’s groups rice milling machines to free up time by unleashing women from hours of manually pounding grains.
Even if all requirements are met, candidates must also be accepted by their political party’s electoral committee, which is not easy, according to Florie De Jager Meezenbroek, governance programme director for Oxfam in Sierra Leone.
“We have found in Kailahun and Koinadugu, where political parties want to gain ground, women can be seen as too risky as they aren’t viewed as vote-catchers,” Meezenbroek told in an interview to online press agency IRIN.
“Men are trying to change their attitude but we still have a lot to do…especially in rural areas, where men are still threatened by the presence of women…they think it takes power away from them,” MP Jalloh told IRIN.
In the run-up to her election as MP for the All People’s Congress in Bombali, members of the opposition parties used every tactic to knock her out of the campaign, she says.
“The local authorities used all their power to eliminate me from the race. Dogs came, vehicles came, they tried to kidnap me…but I had connections and told everyone what was going on,” she told IRIN, explaining how opponents set dogs on her house to try to intimidate her.
“There is lots of harassment of women in elections,” Oxfam’s Meezenbroek said. “We encourage women to keep on going as long as it’s safe. If the parties don’t vote them in, we encourage them to run independently.”
Eight of the 17 women in the 2007 Kailahun race were independents. And Meezenbroek said she knew of no woman who stepped down due to pressure.
Results of the 2007 poll were mixed: eight women candidates were voted onto the district council in Koinadugu, which previously had no women, while in Kailahun the number of female winners dropped from seven to three.
