By Almahady Cissé
BAMAKO, Apr 2 2002 (IPS)

First Malian woman, Hawa Sidibe Sanogo, 52, has announced her candidacy for the Apr 28 presidential elections.

A trained chemical technician, she runs a small dying factory in the capital Bamako. Ten of her 15 workers are women. She is married and has six children.

Malian women, having endorsed Sanogo’s candidacy, say they no longer want to be marginalised by the country’s mainly male politicians.

Women began organising for the Apr 28 election at the end of 2000, long before the commission to oversee the poll process was set up.

The Co-ordinating Body of Associations and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) of Women of Mali (CAFO), along with the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation, initiated a series of training workshops on the theme “Women, Political Life, and Obstacles to Civic Life”.

The workshop targets mainly poor, rural women. CAFO secretary general, Abdoulaye Maiga says the primary goal is to “equip women for broader participation and involvement by exercising their right to vote”.

The secondary aim is to develop networking and advocacy among women leaders to motivate them to be more aware of the role they could play. The purpose of such advocacy is to surmount the obstacles women face in political life.

Women constitute 51.7 percent of Mali’s about nine million people. Even so, women are still under-represented in decision-making bodies, an injustice that they say they would like to correct.

In Mali, as in most African countries, men influence how women vote. This influence manifests itself during electoral campaigns, when families come, at times, to blows and couples separate because of disagreements over politics.

That was what happened to Assa Drame Demba, the Mayor of Diabigue, a town located 740 kilometres east of Bamako. Her only sin was to run for her town’s top job. She was beaten up and humiliated in her eighth month of pregnancy, then repudiated by her husband.

In Mali, cultural and religious pressures keep women at home. Acknowledging that customs can be more rigid than laws, CAFO executive secretary, Oumou Traore Toure has launched a campaign to get men to accept women’s participation in politics.

Mali, an impoverished West African country, is 90 percent Muslim. A large segment of the population is against the idea of women running for the presidency. Nevertheless, through Sanogo, women have decided to make a run for the highest office in the land, whatever the final vote may be.

Sanogo enjoys the support of all of Mali’s women’s associations and NGOs.

Out of 22 Malian cabinet ministers, only five are women (22.7 percent). Mali has 18 women out of 125 legislators (14.4 percent), and 12 women among 703 mayors (1.7 percent).

This year, however, there has been some progress. The National Independent Electoral Commission’s only position, reserved for civil society, went to a woman, CAFO member Nana Aicha Cisse.

As a result, the theme for International Women’s Day – which was celebrated in Mali on Mar 8 – was “Women and the Electoral Process”.

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