Africa-Press – Mozambique. Police yesterday morning detained 17 women activists attempting to protest peacefully in front of the Palace of Justice in Maputo.
The protest was called as part of the campaign “16 Days Of Activism To End Violence Against Women”, also known as “Paint the World Orange” (#16Days #OrangeTheWorld). The initiative has the support of several European Union (EU) country embassies, including the Netherlands and Spain.
The women were protesting against gender-based violence in jobs, homes, jails and markets.
“When municipal police expropriate women’s products in informal markets, when women are raped in the domestic space, when they experience violence in the space of war, when they go through a series of abuses, there are those who have a duty to protect them, whether in Matalane, in Ndlavela, or anywhere else,” activist Quitéria Guirengane explained.
But the demonstration was stopped by the police.
Quitéria Guirengane says that the protesters were explaining to the police that the protest was legal when the agents started to use violence. The activist says she was among those targeted.
“They used violence, pulled our hair, pulled people by the arm, perform a series of abuse and torture… We are going to file a criminal complaint. In the wake of this, the police commanders came. When they saw the press, they began to get impassioned, and said that we had to be stopped. They wanted to create a situation of divide and reign and they wanted to take one of us, but we said. ‘If you take one, you take all, we’ll all go’.”
Moçambique e a dura mão da polícia perante manifestações pacíficas🇲🇿
A Polícia da República de Moçambique, na cidade de Maputo recolheu na manhã desta Terça-feira (07), 17 activistas para a 18ª Esquadra. Fazem parte do grupo de activistas recolhidos 👉: https://t.co/z2nQ6tJblO pic.twitter.com/G8o8VyV7fg
— Omardine Zacarias Omar Rajua (@OmarRajua) December 7, 2021
Activist Amina Abdala condemns the actions of the police.
“We are repudiating acts of violence based on gender and today we held a demonstration, which was notified in advance. We have all the documentation ready. And our Police of the Republic of Mozambique, which does not represent us, went to find us there and prevented us from demonstrating.”
Authorisation for march took time
According to Guirengane, the police asked the women to be patient because the mayor of Maputo municipality, Eneas Comiche, was still processing the request for the demonstration.
But the angry activist replies: “We do not want an order, nor are we going to receive an order from the president of the Municipal Council today. Because the order has to be two days later. If the mayor does not know how to comply with the law, how can he demand the same from street vendors?”
Police have repeatedly stopped demonstrations by activists, students and others in the Mozambican capital.
Police have yet to officially comment on the incident, though n the Miramar video report below, a PRM agent, contacted via phone, claims that the protest was ‘illegal’.
