US President Barack Obama has given an award to a leading women's rights activist in Zimbabwe, labeling Robert Mugabe a "dictator" in the development.
Obama presented Magodonga Mahlangu and her association Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) with the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in a White House ceremony.
"Each time they observe Magodonga beaten back, beaten black and blue during one protest, only to get right back up and lead another, singing freedom songs at the top of her lungs in complete view of security forces, the threat of a policeman's baton loses some of its power," he said.
WOZA has united tens of thousands of Zimbabwean women in a campaign of non-violent struggle against rapes and other rights violations under Mugabe's regime, lasting brutal repression and repeated arrests.
"By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of WOZA and the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors' power with their own power, that they could sap a dictator's strength with their own," Obama said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment