Zimbabwean women activists have protested what they term an “outdated” law which makes the use of sex toys a taboo in the country.
A section of Zimbabwe’s “censorship and entertainments control” law makes the importation or possession of sex toys illegal as they are deemed “indecent” or “obscene” and harmful to public morals, while offenders could be sent to prison if found guilty.
But the female activists have kicked against the law, saying it is not only archaic but a deprivation of their fundamental rights.
A prominent activist, Sitabile Dewa, who filed court papers in March suing the Zimbabwe government and seeking to have parts of the law repealed, said she was challenging part of it in court on the basis that it was “repressive and infringes on her freedom.”
Dewa, who spoke to journalists on Monday, said she was content with her sex life when she was married, but after her divorce, she found her “prospects for erotic pleasure rather bleak” since she could not possess a sex toy for her personal use.
“These laws would have been repealed a long time ago if the majority of users were men. I should not be deprived of self-exploration and indulgence in self-gratification,” said Dewa
Dewa says her campaign for access to sex toys falls into the bigger picture in Zimbabwe of women being “tired of oppression,” and is clearly forward-thinking.
“In Zimbabwe, divorced women and single mothers are often cast as undesirable partners for men and I get frustrated without the ability to use sex toys,” she said.
Another activist, Debra Mwase, a programs manager with Katswe Sistahood, a Zimbabwean group lobbying for women’s rights, said sexually liberated women frightened the men who dominated Zimbabwe’s political, social and cultural spaces.
“The thing that appears to rile authorities the most on the sex toy issue is the sidelining of men,” Mwase said.
“Sex is not really seen as a thing for women. Sex is for men to enjoy. For women, it is still framed as essential only for childbearing. Therefore, sex without a man becomes a threat,” she lamented.
“African societies still vigorously enforce values and laws long ditched by those who brought them here. It is in Europe where women now freely wear less clothing and are sexually liberal, just like we were doing more than a century ago,” she said.