Some Zimbabwean women have welcomed a recent court application by a women’s rights and leadership organisation Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE) challenging the ban on sex toys as prescribed by the Customs and Excise Act.
WALPE executive director Sitabile Dewa recently lodged a court application challenging the legality of Section 47 (1) b of the Customs and Excise Act which criminalises the importation of goods regarded as indecent, obscene, or objectionable.
Dewa argued that the law infringes on women’s right to pleasure.
The court application followed the conviction of Ayanda Muponda, a Harare-based socialite who was involved in the sale of sex toys (dildos).
Muponda was sentenced to a two-year prison term which was wholly suspended on condition she does not repeat the offence and performs 640 hours of community service.
Speaking during an interview with B-Metro, Emma, who did not want her last name used for privacy reasons, said:
We welcome the court application because the banning of sex toys infringes on our right to pleasure as women.
This is because just like masturbation, vibrators are great and they’re easy to use like when you want someone one-on-one time without the help of anyone else.
Remember it is not an easy task to stimulate your mind and body both at the same time and this is where a sex toy plays that part.
Even for married women sex toys will help them to boost their bedroom romance with their partners.
With the option of joy toys, they can lengthen their intimacy duration with their partners.Gladys from Cowdray Park suburb in Bulawayo said dildos make her reach “the Promised Land”. She said:
It’s true that the law violated our right to pleasure as women and the right to privacy.
As much as I love the connection with another person, with a sex toy, I am able to control my own pleasure.
They always make you reach the Promised Land and sometimes men don’t.Another woman who also requested her name not be published told B-Metro:
I think people have the right to decide for themselves whether these devices help their intimate life or not.
What people do in their own private time with themselves is their own business.
Even if the court application does not succeed, women will always continue flying under the radar to avoid being arrested.However, Brian Sibanda, fears that the proliferation of sex toys will render men obsolete. Sibanda said:
Judging from the fact that a lot of husbands were being replaced by these obscene devices, the law banning the use of sex toys should not be overturned.
This is because as men we are being rendered useless by these vibrators.
As men, we should, however, fear not, because it is just that kind of false praise given to these vibrators.
Just imagine they don’t talk to women, they won’t kiss them and hold them as men do and these are the kind of stuff that makes sex more pleasurable.Allen Sithole thinks that there is something wrong with women who require vibrators to fulfill their pleasures. He said:
Men, unlike sex toys, can read women’s facial expressions and during the act.
They know how to respond to their squirming and moaning.Erica Moyo, who has been married for 20 years sided with men, saying sex toys were alien to African culture. She said:
You are just dealing with plastics, and I think it is a perversion to use a vibrator on your skin.Moyo said the use of sex toys is ungodly and unacceptable as God created men and women for each other.
— B-Metro
