For the past three months police in Harare have been conducting operations to arrest women in bars and night clubs. According to the Harare police, these operations are part of an effort to reduce touts, street children and prostitution in the city. Referred to by police as Operation Chipochiroorwa Girl Get Married , the practice of arresting women who are out at night is a definitive example of discrimination based on gender. During the March hearings of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women on Zimbabwe, the government proudly explained that they were addressing prostitution through a zero-tolerance approach, referring specifically to a similar crackdown on sex workers in Yet, the government could not show that such an approach produced any positive results.
Zimbabwean human rights organisations have expressed dismay at these arrests and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has been providing legal services to some of the women who were arrested by the police. Encouragingly, women have also come out in large numbers in protest against this police practice, including through the collection of petitions and regular marches.
Research has shown that many poor women and men resort to exchanging sex for cash, food, clothing and shelter and to provide for their families. Economic determinants and continuous client demand means that sex work cannot be eradicated through a criminal law approach, and attempting to do so is futile. Interestingly, whilst women who engage in sex work are highly stigmatised, the same condemnation does not apply to the significant proportion of men who have used their services.
The Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey ZDHS released by the National Statistics Agency in March revealed that a quarter of all men who are currently married or living with a partner, have at some stage paid for sexual intercourse. Men who had paid for sex were represented across different income groups and education levels. In total almost one in five men in Zimbabwe between 15 and 54 years of age has ever paid for sex.
So a significant section of the population has used the services of sex workers. Comparing this information to the ZDHS further shows no increase in the use of paid sexual services, and reveals that condom use during paid sex has consistently increased.
