Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) plans to get older women to strip during forthcoming anti-government protests, a party official was quoted as saying on Friday.
Women are the weapons the MDC will use to put the right leader in power, the Manica Post newspaper quoted Grace Kwinjeh, an official in the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai, as saying.
In traditional local culture, it is highly taboo for men to catch a glimpse of elderly women naked. It is even believed that a curse will fall on individuals who see the women’s bodies.
It will be hard for the police to take severe action against their naked mothers, Kwinjeh added, in comments reportedly made at a rally in eastern Makoni district last week.
The MDC says plans for a series of anti-government protests are gathering momentum, despite government threats to crush them. No date has yet been set for the action.
The Manica Post, which is regarded as highly sympathetic to the government, said the MDC was planning to use women aged between 40 and 70 for their protests.
President Robert Mugabe has branded the MDC as a violent party and has threatened to deploy police and security forces to quash any street demonstrations.
During anti-government protests in Kenya in the early 1990s, a group of women in their 60s and 70s stripped naked when police fired teargas at them and attacked them. — Sapa-dpa