| The continued challenges being faced by diverse rural women in Uganda has left a lot to be desired. Women in the informal sector are not only denied economic freedom but also the socio-cultural and political rights, ownership and inheritance rights, access to resources, limited protection and violation. This has been worsened by the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic in which majority of women especially in the informal economy were locked with their abusive partners which drastically increased cases of GBV in the communities. The negative cultural beliefs/ norms have further continued to put women at an inferior position most notably “Aruba” in the Lugbara culture in which women are not allowed to report cases of violence to the police or any other place other than within the home setting since it is believed it will bring curse (bad omen) or negative energy to the children and spouse thus limiting their access to justice and self-esteem as they shy away from sharing their lived realities with other people. It is against this background that SIHA Network and Feminature Uganda have initiated a series of safe space conversations to bring feminists and their organisations, female Human Rights Defenders and the rural women to a safe space in which they can freely share issues pertaining to them that they would not ordinarily share in normal public settings for women to share their lived realities (stories) with other people which will be kept confidential, get psychosocial support and linkage to other necessarily support that they might require. One key goal of these spaces is to inform and influence local policy formulation processes by including the voices of women in decision-making processes. |
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