COMMUNITY
STANDING UP for the Rule of Law
Z
imbabwe is a hard place these days to be a woman, or an activist, or anyone not aligned with the governing party. Human rights organizations report that the government of Zimbabwe violates the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly and the protection of the law. Citizens are at risk of detention and torture. Elections entail threats and suppression. Women and LGBT are discriminated against and not protected from abuse or assault. Journalists are assaulted. In oppressive situations like this, there can be real danger in trying to be part of a force of change. Many will become silenced out of fear. But one woman has decided to shine all the more fiercely against the abuses of the government and law enforcement in Zimbabwe, even if it gets her arrested or beaten. Her name is Beatrice Mtetwa, and she is a human rights lawyer. Born in rural Swaziland as the eldest daughter to a cattle farmer who ultimately had six wives and fifty children, she experienced poverty and hard labour. She resolved from a young age that she would move on and not spend her life selling tomatoes. She became the first