Women Run the Show In a Recovering Rwanda

Rwanda's parliament is the world's first where women hold a majority -- 56 percent, including the speaker's chair. (By Stephanie Mccrummen -- The Washington Post)
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Just next door, an epidemic of sexual violence has ravaged eastern Congo, where law and order have almost completely broken down. In the run-up to Kenyan elections last year, several female candidates were beaten and threatened with sexual violence. One was murdered. Out of the legislature's 222 lawmakers, 21 are women.

In this hilly and green capital city, meanwhile, women successfully lobbied for the removal of a statue in a central roundabout that depicted a woman holding a jug of water on her head and a baby on her hip.

In its place came a more neutral one: a smiling woman free of the jug, holding the hand of a little boy walking alongside her.

Not far away is the parliament building, where rows of women took their seats last Thursday, and listened to the finance minister present the midterm national budget.

Afterward came questions from women such as Bernadette Kanzayire, who was a practicing lawyer before she became a politician, or Suzanne Mukayijore, who once worked in banking. And then there was Ignacienne Nyirarukundo, who went to work for Rwanda's national reconciliation commission after surviving the genocide. She then worked on children's welfare issues, and decided to run for office this year, campaigning on a platform of eradicating poverty through reduced birth rates.

"I felt I could do better helping to build my country in parliament," said Nyirarukundo, 39.

Other female lawmakers are Hutu or Tutsi, genocide survivors or former refugees who grew up in Uganda, Burundi or Tanzania. They come from different parties, though opposition to Kagame is not exactly vigorous.

In the recent parliament session, lawmakers asked the finance minister about the impact of the global financial crisis on Rwanda's budget, the gap between exports and imports and the soundness of Rwanda's booming mortgage market. Just one question -- about funding for maternal and child health -- was gender-specific.

Sitting in her office later, Kanzayire spoke diplomatically about "working with men" and seemed sensitive to the joke going around that soon, Rwanda will need affirmative action for men.

Though profound tensions and scars from the genocide still exist here, so does a strong sense of national purpose tinged with unapologetic political correctness.

It is taboo to speak of Hutus or Tutsis these days; everyone is Rwandan. The last Saturday of every month is community work day, when neighbors gather for six hours to help with a collective project -- clearing brush, or repairing a less-fortunate neighbor's house.

"We are doing this for ourselves -- not because it's a law," said Beatrice Namyonga, who was clearing weeds with her neighbors.