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TEDx Talks
Published: 2013-09-10
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63CwuJcxZg
other women's rights activists as a lawyer and the change agent my job ready in Malawi is to try and influence policy reform on legal reform for the betterment of women in my country basically if you look at Malawi you find out that we have a constitution the question of a public open now is a highly progressive legal document it guarantees gender equality it guarantees women's rights
I got his rights for special interest groups so it is a good constitution so why how my relevant in my country because if you dont is women's rights Egon teased and the quality I should not have a job but basically the other side of it is that Malawi is generally a patch you up with states you find that women genital capitis subordinate position I mean this
we got one of the drive was over the spot Checchi is culture now why would culture exists but with that why it wasi I'm such a progressive constitution you see there at constitution is a form of very simple basically what I'm trying to say is state law live side by side with the ordinary customs and practices about of our system so basic estate blow derived from
the colonial rulers when they colonize Millau just like so many sub Saharan countries they brought with them out what does no points statutory law on state law but that doesn't mean that when colonial rulers K. mean that we didn't have our own laws and customs they continue to go on side by side with you know the state law and to date in twenty thirteen that's situations
do obtains always do happening now that is what discord legal praise when I first submitted my concept due to the open as of this conference I talked about legal prison it's my favorite topic I leave it I'd trinkets it fascinates me as a lawyer because I wasn't in law school I was taught in law is the law is and know when I started working particularly as
women's rights I realize the law is not the life look and all you know that exists on the you know subcultures in a custom and practice that competing complimenting with the law and that's just you know bright is yeah that just to be fired because I mean I'm very interested in this particular notion apprised of the legal system but then I I when I give them
the cost of not they wrote back and said in the death of a by this is good and this and that but still you don't do that when you go pricing is too technical and I sort of laughed I laughed but it's a mess of him I can do they know but being a Malawian to use the word pros in it is such a challenge why
why does Al on I and I'm going a day use it in a public forum it is a lot demands I'm now in the so yeah I got need GoPro's them one of the ways in which legal pros implants itself is also through the construction of laws which continued to be subordinate to women one such little is that Wilson inheritance act which has since been repealed
in August twenty eleven when I started work this might activist work in nineteen ninety eight and I looked at the books of the law and I found that the the snow put was inheritance act and when I looked at details like who I found that is a highly oppressive piece of legislation in a nutshell that'll all provided that if a man and that was in the
mountains of man like nope none as it just means woman now none it up the butt if a man died eight his estates was supposed to be given to his children his spouse and his relatives and then no I just said even more remote descendants of the deceased press on and when we walked out to mount an official said today that even wanted what descendants we
know could be ten you know because you know we have there in Iowa extended family system structure it loudly plus the children plus the spouse sake meant that to the ones with the plus to benefit from the to see if the state would be about twenty so let's say Iman leaves pub to worth or money west two thousand donnas it meant that two thousand dollar had
to be equitably shed between that even more to what descendants as well as this day that we don't and the children this law we called it it dispossessing to it dispossessed that we don't dispossessed children and we decided to go around the country to not be an advocate with parliamentarians and other policy makers to change the law that because %HESITATION nineteen ninety eight nineteen ninety nine
two thousand and it is very interesting to talk to policymakers to top department and then the Becky I sold you know we now that you're presenting these so you're saying the law in the constitution and the law than a Thailand guy that was the basis of argument is that when you look at the question of the public open loudly and the slow the flow is repressive
and if he's going against their will letter of the constitution therefore much change it but what can you just go back to the parent if not so fine is it yeah I you know it's true okay %HESITATION that two things we need to take into account one when attending the slow parents of the deceased person have to benefit I think I'm the figure that kept coming
up with twenty five percent they have to have been efficient is often five percent because no culture we believe that if you raise a child to put with the child becomes a successful and the teledysk it protest benefit something because it would give it hadn't and this is a very strong sentiment among when I was appointed I don't have a problem with that the other issue
was yeah but sue would you know now yet you know these women how you know the point is you women Malawian women give me you I you know yes Niki yeah E. haw because if we if you know that by the time we get married when your husband dies you get you have the right to have it oil property on the public dole you know you
my depravity you assume that the death because a traditionally women I response before cooking you just put poison in the food too and feed your husband in order for you for him to die such a kind gets appropriate to so so that debates raged on for thirteen years after that I wish that said two years or maybe waiting for thirteen years after that and when we
continue to advocate the end to it in %HESITATION bogus you know in November twenty ten d'amato went to parliament and %HESITATION because debate in the payment if you even for it to reach Palmer does a huge success but anyway so we're very excited said that's if that thing is of what Cup paid off then those finally going to change women and would be entitled to the
work today to the public that they were cut for and then on the palmitate flow and the shock of my life because they had their way I I would not even mention the MPs but they know themselves a no there the way I had the small goes against the fabric of our culture you cannot allow women to inherit that pro Patty because they'll kill their husbands
and what I was thinking of the garbage it's got to chill really and they said that the legal document back then there was sent back to the apartment take a committee on the go fast saying can we take a look Popeye and this because women in them when acting as sneaking I this is twenty ten will but it would been what before nineteen ninety eight it
have to be it shows I think I what what if anything they descended back full force because what we kill we kill us so that way as a kid as you know that don't have that Killaz of assuming I get back to OB wants he's too but backdated to kill it not a pit boss but to kill for public take that you work for I was
hooked I did that day I had the choice of resigning from the Saddam was and that's an what I mean is any from activists whatever for whatever a forum I find my suffering I'm still activists second resign so and then but I was very angry but then I said we have to go back to the drawing board antipodal Katie I didn't I didn't check in August
twenty eleven the law was passed and it recognizes women's rights to inherit and their children on me with a very small %HESITATION a percentage for the parents nobody happy and we think we've got not don't bend that was one of the happiest days of my life but then I I talked a little bit about the law being a dispossessing to I talked about that coming from
the quote from the context of family that basically not Koch I remember I said the law competes with caccia in our culture we have a practice squad disposition of the window some quite property grabbing but women and low in southern Africa that than this you know what full week we point to the temp dispossessing that we do and we fought what what that what happens is
that in the clinch Kacha construction of my allowance when a man and a woman get married then not related that does not I that related to that people so you say they can you know he's people come and you know how people come back so that they would become that we've come to visit our yes hello hello but this one you know so what happens Agnes
said the husband dies so let's say he was a C. E. O. his relatives who come in and say hello widow sorry but we're here to assess what did our Y. pesan leave he was a C. E. O. yet too because this house and blah blah blah and then looked at Cassie Emily would not me who to us so give vehicle because but given that maybe
were quite nice will give you I'm a cop if it given that caught him he should be they thought you know you know so they give you like a Cup there S. they take because our ads alot pests and what they had and this is what he acquired Celia that is what he scored dispossessing that we don't and that continues to dis day despite and they
progressively good document if a progressive law that that I've outlined before that that was passed in twenty eleven based do that tension that competition I still get cases in my office is a I was dispossessed so would please help me my butt in the hosting this it you know you know how to use so then I as I was thinking about this as it this something
about widowhood now cuts and the two don't like or that people like to play around with because that's not the only cost to that you have to do with the other countries have to do is we don't cleansing in the southern tip of the country we went to an ongoing southern Africa which conducted the research into the other night I what we found out was that
we don't play and sing is the farm is a couch away by when they %HESITATION with %HESITATION husband dies there we go is %HESITATION supposed to commence spirit of a dead husband from high so that he doesn't get in a bad luck and how that is happening that you get a man from the village was not it was a well known clients who is visited by
the family dissipate come help us we need to be placed on the charges you know in terms of the nine week when you cut but it wasn't just seven thousand watch and that's a fifty dollars I would talk to some people and this continues to this day because of the was a but still you know because the basket of HIV aids has changed I like it
investing we found this practice and living talk to the people involved into sunlight gelatin is on that in fact what what is me about the with the cleansing caught it does we have even driven it underground because it is now becoming more and more stigmatize but they're not the same time it was to believe that have to be cleansed so I believe it's just do that
and I'm sure if I took my control that will find it in other research so then what what what what bothers me to say to what extent there for can we have the law that can do you cannot regulate everything side but at the same time you can promote places programs that eradicate Tom for Kacha practices like possessing widows like we don't cleansing we need to
continue coming up with legislation that is responsive to the women's rights agenda as pay all constitution because the women's that's again they feel something that that is just dreamt up it is entrenched in the constitution of the public of my out and that was twenty twenty four and that so that responsivity go family should also be encouraged that they should be support vision problem supporting implementation
of the law program supporting women's empowerment but more importantly why is a woman like me I'm a lot when I was born in this country you know but the but my wife and I faced with this challenges because I went to school with them educate there is little invests in education they need to invest in good education they think the fight practice that child marriage which
