SEXUAL HARRASMENT AND THE LAW
It is safe to say that women in Africa are not safe.
The Women and Transport Conference that took place from the 1st -3rd December 2021 was a feminist space that was necessary. I was part of a panel discussion that focused on Sexual Harassment and the Law.
This discussion made me recall the various movements we have had across the continent calling for an end to sexual harassment, and these events were often necessitated by numerous occurrences of stripping women’s clothing off of their bodies.
There were campaigns all over the region such as #MyBodyMyChoice and our very own Hashtag in Botswana, #IWearWhatIWant that emanated from an incident in 2017 were a woman was stripped naked at the Bus Rank and insults were hauled at her.
At the grassroots and societal level, protests have the power to inform right from wrong, that no one should have a say in what a woman wears, and therefore insulting, battering and stripping someone naked is stripping them of their bodily integrity and autonomy.
A challenge we face as women is that our law does not speak to the protection of women were they are stripped naked, threatened and or intimidated because of their clothes.
The Constitution provides for the right to dignity and non-discrimination. However, one of the fundamental changes we need to see is the inclusion of second and third generation rights in our Constitutions’ that explicitly protect women from violence of this nature, because essentially, this is violence.
States cannot and should not be complacent in the protection of women who use public transport.
BOSA SEBELE 
I am hopeful that the law will be impactfully developed to protect women in Botswana in our lifetime. Unfortunately, it seems Botswana takes decades to develop its laws.
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