Rwanda: the Exception, Not the Rule for African Women

by Jen Nedeau

Published October 30, 2008 @ 05:09AM PST

Michelle F. over at the Stop Genocide Blog writes about the Washington Post article this week, Women Run the Show in Rwanda, which states how women are rebuilding the country post-genocide, taking a majority of leadership positions and changing the previous patriarchal political landscape:

"Women hold a third of all cabinet positions, including foreign minister, education minister, Supreme Court chief and police commissioner general. And Rwanda's parliament last month became the first in the world where women claim the majority -- 56 percent, including the speaker's chair."

Despite the numbers in Rwanda, where 55% of the population is now female after the deaths of the male population during the genocide - there is still a lot to do in order to achieve greater female power throughout the rest of Africa.

For example in the Democratic Republic of Congo, women are systematically raped and abused despite a peace agreement that was signed in January 2008, cited in a recent Amnesty International report:

Since the signing of the Act of Engagement, the cease-fire has been broken on hundreds of occasions, thousands of women and girls have been raped, hundreds of children recruited into the armed groups, often through abduction, and scores of civilians unlawfully killed.

In Kenya, during the run-up to elections last year, several female candidates were beaten and threatened with sexual violence, while one was murdered.

While it seems that Rwanda is moving forward in terms of giving women the respect and opportunity they deserve, they are still the exception rather than the rule in Africa. Hopefully with the advances made it Rwanda, it can encourage societal change in places like the DRC where women are experiencing immense suffering at the hands of male antagonists: