Women - men - gender. - Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

58
STRUCTURING GLOBALIZATION SOCIALLY
Tanzania
The thorny path of the barefoot women lawyers:
raising awareness on women’s rights in Tanzania
Although the Tanzanian Government offi cially
supports equal rights for women and men, yet religious
and customary traditions are obstacles in
the way to advancing women’s rights. Especially in
rural areas, women’s access to education is very
poor as compared to men. As a result, it is more
diffi cult for them to oppose miserable working
conditions or the daily oppression they are subjected
to. Till today, poverty in Tanzania is predominantly
a women’s issue. In rural areas, where
customary law is often practised to the detriment
of women, they are heavily discriminated against
especially with regard to right to property and right
to own land. The Deputy UN Secretary-General,
Asha-Rose Migiro, a former minister in Tanzania,
therefore, urges, “In order to achieve equal rights
we must support women in rural areas in particular.”
For the past ten years, the FES has dedicated itself
to this work. It supports the work of the so-called
barefoot women lawyers (Paralegal Units, PLUs),
because one reason for the continuing discrimination
against women and for the oppression of
women is their ignorance about their legal rights.
Making information available in the concerned
local languages, raising awareness about the rights
and duties of men and women are the fi rst steps on
the path to an equitable and just social order.
Women working free of charge, offering legal consultancy
are trained in family law, property law
and political rights. They advise the women individually
in their villages. They support those
who are too poor to defray the legal expenses even
in case of civil disputes before the court.
The manual on women’s rights to land, the
“ Kiongozi cha Sheria”, the fi fth edition of which
was brought out by the FES in 2008, forms the basis
for the legal training of the barefoot lawyers. Some
of the subjects covered are Tanzanian land and
property rights, child rights, marriage laws or the
divorce law. This information on the new land laws
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