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People who move to Uganda from the west say it's like enjoying an endless summer. This East African country, one of the largest beer consumers in the world, still has the excuse to party and the bars are open 24/7. In fact, there is a four-day dance festival that attracts people from all over the world. Are you overwhelmed by all the heat and the party? Take a trip to one of the 36 nature reserves, hike to see the chimpanzees or take a stroll and marvel at the scenery.
Uganda will do everything to keep its admirers interested. In 2017, the country, with the support of the World Bank, paid $ 1.5 million to public relations companies in Europe and America to strengthen its tourism business. In 2018, it spent an additional $ 1.2 million on similar initiatives in China, Japan and the Gulf States. And now, Tourism Minister Godfrey Kiwanda has announced a new way of selling the country abroad: a beauty contest Ugandan round women "will present their beautiful curves and their intellect".
Kiwanda thinks the show will attract visitors who will not only come to see nature and wildlife, but also beautiful "true African" women. "These curves, there is a story behind them. It's a story we want to tell, "he said at a press conference at which examples of these women with generous curves were presented.
Obviously, Kiwanda has never been a curvy woman, nor any other type of woman, in Uganda. Otherwise, he would have known what Ugandan women endure and his Miss Curvy campaign would not have been so tasteless.
He would have had more empathy for these bodies, which are seized in the street and attacked by men under the supervision of the police. Perhaps his campaign would have been to make the streets safe for women tourists, who are particularly targeted by the heckling. In one case, a German woman was raped by a rider boda boda (motorcycle taxi).
If Kiwanda and the government he was working for really cared about stories of women, another woman would not have been murdered last month. The police would not have failed to investigate the killings of dozens of women abducted last year, which would have resulted in the release of suspects for lack of evidence. It would be clear to them that the perverse spirit behind the laws that punish women considered to be undecidedly dressed in government offices or on the street is the same spirit that fuels rape and murder. And they would certainly not seek to exchange the bodies of women – whom they considered too far too bady, provocative or worthy of being abused – against currency.
At first, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he understood the concept of Miss Curvy, saying that it was no different from any other beauty contest. Later, however, he moved away from it. "It was not a cabinet decision. People should not come here to see women. I do not like the idea that we are promoting our women for tourism. "
And religious leaders, including Simon Lokodo, a former ethics minister and former priest, at the forefront of a witch hunt for homobaduals and "indecent" women, also spoke out against the show.
"What they do is very bad for the country. Uganda is a moral country. We have so many things that we can use instead of women's bodies, "he said.
When your enemies start fighting with you, you have to watch them closely. The women's rights movement should not be so quick to embrace Lokodo, Museveni and the religious leaders who find Miss Curvy despicable, but remain silent when a woman is undressed in the street under the encouragement of men. It is confusing to see the head of a government where women are prevented from entering the ministries and parliament if they are deemed too "bady" and now say that it is against the government. objectification of women.
A closer look at why the government and religious leaders oppose the Miss Curvy contest suggests that they are more angry that the country's moral fabric is being badaulted than preoccupied by women exposed to harbadment and harbadment. abuse.
Tourism brings in about $ 1.4 billion annually in Uganda, almost 10 percent of GDP. However, its poor reputation for governance and respect for human rights has stifled its tourism potential and the country's profile is being negated by its neighbors, Kenya and Rwanda.
Uganda has ambitious development goals, including becoming a middle-income country by 2020. Attracting income at the expense of women's dignity may be part of the plan.
The women who came to Miss Curvy say they are happy to be tourist attractions and make money at the same time. What they do not realize is that the system will be designed to receive only crumbs.
And, again, the only winners will be men who think that a woman's body is a source of vulgarity and distraction – unless, of course, that body is used for the benefit of a man, whether it is the man who carries out the political function, the man catching him in the street, or the violent man at her home.
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