The terrifying, horrifying, beyond-adjectives health statistic I came across recently is that in a poll in 2002, around 50% of Tanzanian respondents agreed that it is OK for a man to beat his wife if she leaves the house without permission. And that was among the women questioned. That's an extreme example, but the sexism in this society is all-pervading. I thought of myself as a reasonably well-adjusted bloke before, but I becoming a lot more of a feminist. There are issues still to be faced in Britain of course, equal pay for equal jobs, better protection from violent partners spring to mind immediately. But we (Britons) have made some big strides in the right direction of which we should be proud. The news today from Mali is of civil unrest and threats to state buildings over a proposed law to make men and women equal partners in marriage. Meanwhile in Tanzania, women on average work a longer day than their husbands for much less money. So in simplistic terms, better education for women would allow this harder-working section of the population to do better paid jobs: better for their families, better for them, better for Tanzania. Women's and girl's education has massive impacts on health too, e.g. in terms of delayed and less frequent childbirth; hugely important to a country where maternal mortality is high, whose population is growing faster than almost anywhere else in the world, and yet struggles to feed the mouths already here. And how about some more respect. A few months ago in Mtwara, I went to apply for official residency in the country. I had to attend the local immigration department and discuss my case with a senior official there. When I told him that my wife worked, and for the moment I was looking after the house and doing some cooking, he laughed at me and called me a "queer". Homosexuality is, in another display of Tz's ability to stamp its foot and insist on stupidity, still illegal here, so technically this may have been slander on his part. Briefly I considered asking him if my European lifestyle is so laughable, how many SUV's does he own, how many PhD's does his family have and when did he last travel in an aeroplane? But that's not quite the point, and much of it doesn't sit too easily with my leftward leanings anyway. So I just assured him that teamwork was the most valuable thing in my relationship, and the same would go for many people where I live. And as I shook his clammy hand and left the office, I imagined his pudgy little form standing in a ring with Jane Couch MBE, "The Fleetwood Assassin", learning a thing or two about powerful British women.
www.myspace.com/fleetwoodassassin
