By Emily Setona
QWAQWA – Qholaqhwe Advice Centre (QAC) and Thekoloheng Women’s Forum celebrated Women’s Month by motivating women to have self-love and self-belief.
The organisations’ message to the community of Phuthaditjaba was “Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.”
Mapaseka Madonsela of QAC said the purpose of this seminar was to encourage women to be content with themselves.
“A content woman is a woman who is satisfied and happy with herself; that is the kind of change that we want to see in the lives of the women gathered here today.
“Another very important purpose for this seminar is to expose women to the services that QAC offers by bringing the professionals who assist with very important human rights issues to the women here today,” Madonsela said.
The women of QAC and Thekoloheng Women’s Forum are human rights activists and advocates for women’s issues that are very sensitive and critical for women to discuss and be open about.
Rebecca Moshoeshoe from home affairs told the women that it is very important for them to be independent and exercise caution when entering marriage. She said in her line of work there are several cases where civil and customary marriages are used to violate women’s human rights.
“Women must be very careful because nowadays men use marriage as a tool to abuse and take away a woman’s freedom, especially if that woman is not independent and does not have support from her family. I also urge mothers to be very mindful of the activities that their girl children get into because some of them find themselves in abusive marriages and are unable to get out of these types of situations because they did not tell their parents of the marriage,” Moshoeshoe said when addressing the women at a local hotel.
Palesa Mphosi from the Free State department of Social Development, said that it is very important for women to know themselves, and one of the ways in which they can do this is by knowing their archetype.
“An archetype is your personality and character traits that are inherent in you and explain why you behave the way that you do. Knowing this can help women to understand themselves better and to understand each other better so that they don’t fight over petty things and give each other space to be themselves,” Mphosi said.
At the same occasion, Magistrate Jenniffer Moalusi said that gender based violence (GBV) is the first pandemic in South Africa and the law is very serious when it comes such cases.
“It is important for women to understand that the law is very strict when it comes to cases of GBV so they must not report petty things to the police because their partners will find themselves thrown in jail for seven days which may turn into months while they are still applying for bail. Women must learn to be independent and get an education because no matter what life throws at you an education can help you gain your independence and freedom especially after the trauma of abusive relationships and marriages,” Moalusi said.
