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Honour This

In a remote part of Africa, a woman goes down to the river to get water for her family. A British soldier sees her, assaults and rapes her. Sobbing, she runs to tell her husband what has happened. He is incensed with rage and picks up a knife to seek revenge... on her.

He knew, he said, that the soldier has instigated the attack, but "she brought shame on me in the community."

The difference here is that the woman left, rather than wait to be killed. She fled to a small village of about 3 dozen other women - and only about 5 men.

This village is led by women, for women, an astonishing thing in this patriachal corner of the world. The women work together and sell beaded goods to tourists. They earn enough to buy new clothes, medicenes, and to choose to send their children to school.

Most of the women have been forced to leave their husbands and families from fear of beatings or honour killings. Now, when a husband or brother arrives (there is no divorce available under the law) the women run him off themselves, or go to the authorities.

I admire the courage and dignity these women display. It must be very hard to live in a society that is so different to the rest of the world around them. But they are happy to be free from the demands of the men.

"We are always under men," said Rebecca Lolosoli, who is the leader of the three dozen or so women who live in Umoja, which means Unity in Swahili. "The men treat us like nothing. You are there to give them children. We're like property, and we're mistreated." - the nytimes.com website.

FREEDOM!