@column int = Zimbabwean women won formal equal rights in 1980 with the passing of the Legal Age of Majority Act, one of the gains of the liberation struggle against white minority rule. However, a ruling by the Zimbabwe's Supreme Court in March has reinterpreted the act to downgrade the status of women.
The decision was made in relation to a woman who was denied her inheritance because of her sex. The property was awarded instead to her younger brother.
In a ruling that went beyond the specifics of the case, the five judges said that the 1980 law was not intended to grant women complete equality. They asserted, "A woman's status is basically the same as that of junior males in the family".
The ruling applies only to black women, particularly those who marry under traditional law. Polygamy and the inferior status of women are a feature of traditional customs.
Setting a precedent based on cultural practice, the decision sparked angry protests in Harare. Women protested in front of the court to demand equality with men.
Around 80% of Zimbabwean women marry under traditional laws, which in some areas also give a father-in-law consummation rights over his son's bride on the wedding night. It is alleged that, having more "experience", he is better able to ascertain the bride's virginity.
A 42-year-old Zimbabwean woman was recently jailed after she retaliated against her father-in-law for his continued demands for sex, 22 years after her marriage. Fed up with his badgering, she burnt his house. She was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, even though the custom states that a man's sexual rights to his daughter-in-law relate only to the first night of the marriage. Marita Ncube said she was relieved to be going to prison because "the old man will not be able to harass me anymore".
Some may think such rulings should be accepted because they deal with customary law and practice which should, as part of traditional culture, be respected. Similar arguments are sometimes made with reference to the compulsory wearing of the veil in some Muslim countries, or in parts of Africa and Asia where female circumcision is practised.
Those who object to sexist traditional laws or customs are sometimes labelled "racist", or their views described as culturally insensitive. Western feminists who criticise the inferior status of women in particular societies are sometimes accused of cultural elitism or cultural imperialism, and are told that they should only be concerned with sexism in their own society.
Such charges are based on two false assumptions. First, that traditional society is unchanging and has always been so. Archaeological and anthropological evidence is now challenging the belief that a male-dominated social system has been the norm in all traditional cultures.
Secondly, that only those from a particular culture can criticise its traditional practices. While it is essential that women organise against their own forms of oppression, feminists have the right to speak out about the oppression of women no matter where it occurs.
While it is true that sexism is far from eradicated in Western society, First World feminists have the right to identify instances of sexual oppression in any circumstance and speak out against them. Sexism is sexism, even if it has been practised for 2000 years.
Women around the world need to unite in solidarity with each others' struggles, giving support, information and acting to eradicate sexism in all societies in alliance with other oppressed groups. This goes for both the oldest and the most "modern" civilisations.
By Margaret Allum