Rural Women with Disabilities in Zimbabwe: A Critical Feminist Disability Account

Abstract

Women with disabilities (WWD) in rural Zimbabwe are unable to enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms. The aim of this study was to capture the experiences of WWD in a rural setting. Inspired by critical feminist disability theory, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 WWD (in particular, women with visual and physical impairments) in Mberengwa. Their stories demonstrate limited access to education, employment, information, land, and other productive resources. All of the research participants grappled with inaccessible public transport and buildings. Accessing grants, land, farming knowledge, and funding for trade, water and toilet facilities became daily struggles. Contextual, socioeconomic, historical, and gendered power relations intersect to heavily limit their functioning. None of the research participants embraced victimhood but instead resisted pity. Their push-back against abjection took various forms, such as attempting to earn an income, achieving reproductive aspirations, or working the land. Such actions, however, were often met with negative perceptions that equate disability with inability. Based on the findings, it is recommended that institutions responsible for WWD be restructured and better financed. In addition, the study calls for improved mainstreaming, advocacy and awareness-raising about the rights of WWD in rural Zimbabwe.