By our reporter
Prof. Sylvia Tamale, the head of five member investigations Committee which was instituted to handle the sex for marks issue at Makerere University has vowed to fight tooth and nail to put a stop on the unappealing vice of sexual harassment within the institution.
Speaking at the closing session of Gender Identity Week at Makerere University on Saturday, Prof. Tamale said women/young girls are not sexually harassed due to their dress code as some people claim but because female bodies are sexualized and objectified.
“Men sexualize our bodies all the time, they got this sense of entitlement to women’s bodies so they feel they have power to own our bodies and even if you fully cover your body, a predator will still harass you,” she stated.
Prof. Tamale assured female students at the university that her committee is going to fight the unwanted sexual advances by some male lecturers who tend to exploit them in the name of sex for marks.
“I have been in this struggle for over two decades and as the chairperson of the committee we are going to fight these sex predators to the extent that they start shaking in their pants,” warned Prof. Tamale.
Speaking at the same session about the role of women in political participation, Ms. Esperanza Baguma, the woman Member of Parliament for Kyenjojo District noted that women’s presence in politics, gave the tact a human face thus leading to the affirmative action like the 1.5 points given to girl children when joining higher levels of learning that has greatly helped women to compete favourably with men.
She however, urged government to also include an affirmative action to job opportunities since most jobs are given out in favour of men.
The legislator also revealed that their male counterparts in parliament adamantly refused to support the marriage and divorce bill until recently when they (female MPs) decided to adjust it to marriage bill.
Male MPs refused to support the marriage and divorce bill so we decided to modify and repeal some clauses which the male MPs thought were unfair to men. We then named it marriage bill and now we have support and recruited men on board so it will be passed in the near future,” said Ms. Baguma.
Meanwhile, she expressed concern about women’s incapability to own resources.
Ms.Baguma indicated that despite Uganda’s strong fight to transfigure equality into reality, women still find it hard to own resources due to the male dominion and this affects them negatively since they don’t have resources to facilitate their political activities.
Associate Prof. Consolata Kabonesa, one of the organizers of the week, thanked the Swedish Embassy in Uganda, guests and students who spared their time to take part in the colourful event.
On the function, winners of the transformation through women empowerment and positive masculinities competition were also awarded.
Claire Nalukenge, a master’s graduate in Industrial and fine art and team emerged winners in positive masculinities category whereas Babirye Angela also a master’s graduate in the same field and team emerged winners in transformation category.
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