Several armed riot police swooped on Turinawe’s car to stop her from travelling to an opposition rally.
One officer then repeatedly went for her right
breast, squeezing it violently as Turinawe screamed and fought him.
Eventually, she was yanked out of her car and bundled into a police van.
Until now, police and other security officers who crack down violently on the opposition in Uganda have been promoted.
Indeed, at the height of the Walk to Work protests by the recently banned Activists for Change (A4C), a senior officer who did not violently break up one of the walks was demoted to oversee a decrepit police garage.
The difference this time was that the breast-attack on Turinawe was not just bizarre, but disturbing in a strange sort of way.
The video of the attack that was posted on YouTube sparked notably angry responses.
There are many other stories in this, though. In the 1990s, East Africa witnessed the rise of militant street political activism by women.
Kenya was the epicentre, and the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai the poster girl of the movement.
Women’s activism seemed to die down in the mixed democratisation wave that swept the region, but is now on the rise again.
In Kenya, activist Ann Njogu has been flying the new flag. In Uganda, Turinawe is the face of the new feminism.
There is something unnerving about Turinawe. Literally every other month, she is either beaten up by security officers (sometimes badly), or is arrested, or is in court.
She most spends more time in hospital, prison, at rallies, and in court than in her house. No matter how much she is struck down, she will get up and defy power again.
Second, it is reveals a striking pattern in the way East African Men of Power use intimate body parts to terrorise their people.
In West Africa, both rebels and unruly government soldiers like to cut off the genitals of their male opponents and eat them.
Sourced from the East African Newspaper
Indeed, at the height of the Walk to Work protests by the recently banned Activists for Change (A4C), a senior officer who did not violently break up one of the walks was demoted to oversee a decrepit police garage.
The difference this time was that the breast-attack on Turinawe was not just bizarre, but disturbing in a strange sort of way.
The video of the attack that was posted on YouTube sparked notably angry responses.
There are many other stories in this, though. In the 1990s, East Africa witnessed the rise of militant street political activism by women.
Kenya was the epicentre, and the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai the poster girl of the movement.
Women’s activism seemed to die down in the mixed democratisation wave that swept the region, but is now on the rise again.
In Kenya, activist Ann Njogu has been flying the new flag. In Uganda, Turinawe is the face of the new feminism.
There is something unnerving about Turinawe. Literally every other month, she is either beaten up by security officers (sometimes badly), or is arrested, or is in court.
She most spends more time in hospital, prison, at rallies, and in court than in her house. No matter how much she is struck down, she will get up and defy power again.
Second, it is reveals a striking pattern in the way East African Men of Power use intimate body parts to terrorise their people.
In West Africa, both rebels and unruly government soldiers like to cut off the genitals of their male opponents and eat them.
Sourced from the East African Newspaper
No comments:
Post a Comment