February 16, 2021 • 8 mins
Anney and Samantha highlight the story and human rights work of Unity Dow, the first woman to be appointed Judge to the High Court of Botswana.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
Never told your protection of I Heart Radio. Welcome everyone
to today. He's addition of women around the world. I
(00:25):
don't know, because it's gonna change every time. You know
it is because I'm not gonna remember what I said before.
But I'm sure you know there's no way to go back,
and I will never I will never go back. Only four.
But today we are talking about the first woman to
be appointed judge to the High Court of Botswana, Unity Dow.
(00:46):
Unity Dow is no changer to paving the way for
many women in Southern Africa. She is known as the
humans rights and women's right activists and has been a
prominent politician in Botswana for many years. Unity I was
born in a small village near Gabra run A, Botswana,
on April ninety nine. Though her parents were not highly educated,
her father was a very big proponent and furthering the
children's education and encouraging his children to do the same
(01:10):
right as In fact, he and another teacher were a
big influence on her continuing her education in schooling and
she went on to study law at the University of
Botswana and Swaziland, becoming the only woman studying law at
that time, and then went on to the University of
Edinburgh in Scotland to continue her education and after obtaining
her law degree, she worked as a lawyer at a
human rights organization in her home village at Machudi. In
(01:32):
nineteen ninety one, she helped open a private primary school,
Bayo Bob School in Gabarone, and that school is still
currently operating. She then continued on working as a colonel
prosecutor defense attorney, but she soon embarked on another case
in which she was the plaintiff herself. She had married
an American citizen, Peter Dow, and found that under the
citizenship law, her children are not considered citizens of Botswana
(01:55):
due to their father's lineage, because under the law any
child could not be sidered a citizen unless their father
was a citizen, and this included children who were born
quote out of wedlock. She went through a five year
legal journey to change this not only for herself but
for all the women in Botswana. She stated during her
trial quote, Suddenly I was being unpatriotic by bringing this case.
(02:17):
I was being uncultural. I was influenced by my foreign training.
I was not behaving like a normal nice wife. She
talked about how she often would just cry over this
journey trying to make this change because she just could
not understand how the system would go after women in
such a way when they are the matriarch and should
be able to have their children to be a part
(02:39):
of this citizenship and lineage as well. It was we
were actually a really interesting case um and she was
able to win the case, changing the law and breaking
down the patriarchal system in which laws were formed and
how to bring equal rights for the Massawana women as
well as the men. And she talked about how not
only was this law changed, but they actually hired her
and many other people to research the level of misogyny
(03:00):
in their laws and in their constitution and whether it
was unconstitutional or not. So it was really really interesting
to see the effect she had. But she also was
an advocate for bringing awareness of the A'S and HIV
epidemic in Southern Africa, and she created the A's Action
Trust and with Max XX, wrote the book called Saturday
Is for Funerals, which details the two stories and trauma
(03:21):
of different families affected by the disease and then also
how the community leaders, scientists, educators and medical professionals responded
to help stop the epidemic. And by the way. She
is a novelist with many books under her belt, most
of which speaking to the issues of ginger quality or inequality,
and issues and poverty within her country. She also started
the Women in Law in Southern Africa w l s A,
(03:43):
which is now spread through seven countries Botswana, Lusu, to Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. The w l s A is a
non governmental organization that conducts research for women's human rights.
As they say they quote aimed to help build a
world with fear asymmetries, where no one is excluded on
the grounds of sex, race, ethnicity or region, and where
(04:04):
each individual can enjoy her his rights as a citizen
and as a High Court justice now has been instrumental
in fighting for the rights of the citizens. She is
well known for her ruling in one of the longest
and one of the most expensive cases in Botswana, the
roy Sasana and others versus the Government of Botswana or
the Central Collegoty Gang Reserve or c kg R, which
(04:25):
led to the sand Or Bostwara people to be able
to return to their ancestral lands after the government had
sought to forcibly removed them. She stated the case was
quote ultimately about people demanding dignity and respect. It is
a people saying, in essence, our way of life may
be different, but it is worthy of respect. We may
be changing and getting closer to your way of life,
but give us a chance to decide what we want
(04:47):
to carry with us into the future, which I thought
was a really powerful statement. And in regards to what
helps her make her ruling, she stated, quote, it all
comes to hard facts before the court, is a law
that applies at the end of it all, it is
the facts properly brought before me that count. And as
a friend always says you're a slave to the Constitution,
you are no slave demand. She served as the High
(05:08):
Court judge for eleven years, moving on to starting her
first firm giving opportunities for women practicing law. DW. Malakayla Attorneys,
Sorry if I mispronounced that. She also worked with the
lgbt Q organization l E G A b I b
O during this time to be able to register as
an organization which would allow for it to be granted funds,
(05:31):
which at one point was seen as unconstitutional, but Dow
worked to sue the government gaining grounds for lgbt Q
plus rights. So in fourteen that was nominated as a
special Elected Member of Parliament or they're also called simple
as e MP and confirmed and appointed as Assistant Minister
of Education. Then was appointed by President Comma as Minister
(05:53):
of Education and Skills Development. In twenty eighteen, under a
new administration, she was appointed as Minister of infrastruct Sure
in Housing Development or later known as Minister of Internal
Affairs and Cooperation, and reconfirmed in twenty nineteen. However, in
twenty twenty she has since announced her retirement. But it
is clear she has had a long lasting impact in
our country where she still resides, receiving awards like Legion
(06:16):
of Honor William Brennan, Human Rights Award from Rutgers and
the Vanguard Women Leadership Award. It's obvious she has left
her mark as an advocate and a fighter and is
known as a nonconformist who has opened up a pathway
for women to continue to fight for justice and equality. Yeah,
she was so fascinating for me to read about and
just about how many things that she was able to
(06:36):
do and pushed through and the forces is not her
only cases that she did, but these are some of
the bigger ones that really helped her stand out. And
even her own case leading the way to have them
revamp their laws and talk about what is sexist and
what is misogynistic has been a big part, especially with
her putting her own mental health on the line and
(06:58):
trying to get this done for her children and how
important it is to have our children be proud of
being citizens of Botswana as well as the U. So
it's really beautiful to see and it's amazing how hard
she fought to get to this point. Yeah, and that's
a theme we've seen in a lot of episodes around
female First or that we're going to continue to see
as we do this series of Women around the World
(07:19):
is women who do put so much of themselves on
the line to help create a better future, the future
they want for younger generations that they want to see.
And it's really inspiring and I'm glad we're getting to
spotlight it in this series. I'm glad we're getting to
talk about women who perhaps you had not heard of listeners,
and I'm always a big proponent, you know me. I'm
(07:41):
a language nerd, so I love the idea of like
going through the Constitution and finding out like all the
misogynistic language, right, I love it. So that brings us
to the end of this installment of women around the world.
If there are women that we should spotlight, that you
want to suggest to us, uh, please do. Our email
(08:02):
is Stuff Media mom Stuff at iHeart meia dot com.
You can find us on Instagram at stuff I've Never
Told You, are on Twitter app mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks
as always to our super producer Christina, Thank you and
thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You
the prediction to I Heart Radio for more podcast for
my Heart Radio. It is a iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
Never told your protection of I Heart Radio. Welcome everyone
to today. He's addition of women around the world. I
(00:25):
don't know, because it's gonna change every time. You know
it is because I'm not gonna remember what I said before.
But I'm sure you know there's no way to go back,
and I will never I will never go back. Only four.
But today we are talking about the first woman to
be appointed judge to the High Court of Botswana, Unity Dow.
(00:46):
Unity Dow is no changer to paving the way for
many women in Southern Africa. She is known as the
humans rights and women's right activists and has been a
prominent politician in Botswana for many years. Unity I was
born in a small village near Gabra run A, Botswana,
on April ninety nine. Though her parents were not highly educated,
her father was a very big proponent and furthering the
children's education and encouraging his children to do the same
(01:10):
right as In fact, he and another teacher were a
big influence on her continuing her education in schooling and
she went on to study law at the University of
Botswana and Swaziland, becoming the only woman studying law at
that time, and then went on to the University of
Edinburgh in Scotland to continue her education and after obtaining
her law degree, she worked as a lawyer at a
human rights organization in her home village at Machudi. In
(01:32):
nineteen ninety one, she helped open a private primary school,
Bayo Bob School in Gabarone, and that school is still
currently operating. She then continued on working as a colonel
prosecutor defense attorney, but she soon embarked on another case
in which she was the plaintiff herself. She had married
an American citizen, Peter Dow, and found that under the
citizenship law, her children are not considered citizens of Botswana
(01:55):
due to their father's lineage, because under the law any
child could not be sidered a citizen unless their father
was a citizen, and this included children who were born
quote out of wedlock. She went through a five year
legal journey to change this not only for herself but
for all the women in Botswana. She stated during her
trial quote, Suddenly I was being unpatriotic by bringing this case.
(02:17):
I was being uncultural. I was influenced by my foreign training.
I was not behaving like a normal nice wife. She
talked about how she often would just cry over this
journey trying to make this change because she just could
not understand how the system would go after women in
such a way when they are the matriarch and should
be able to have their children to be a part
(02:39):
of this citizenship and lineage as well. It was we
were actually a really interesting case um and she was
able to win the case, changing the law and breaking
down the patriarchal system in which laws were formed and
how to bring equal rights for the Massawana women as
well as the men. And she talked about how not
only was this law changed, but they actually hired her
and many other people to research the level of misogyny
(03:00):
in their laws and in their constitution and whether it
was unconstitutional or not. So it was really really interesting
to see the effect she had. But she also was
an advocate for bringing awareness of the A'S and HIV
epidemic in Southern Africa, and she created the A's Action
Trust and with Max XX, wrote the book called Saturday
Is for Funerals, which details the two stories and trauma
(03:21):
of different families affected by the disease and then also
how the community leaders, scientists, educators and medical professionals responded
to help stop the epidemic. And by the way. She
is a novelist with many books under her belt, most
of which speaking to the issues of ginger quality or inequality,
and issues and poverty within her country. She also started
the Women in Law in Southern Africa w l s A,
(03:43):
which is now spread through seven countries Botswana, Lusu, to Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. The w l s A is a
non governmental organization that conducts research for women's human rights.
As they say they quote aimed to help build a
world with fear asymmetries, where no one is excluded on
the grounds of sex, race, ethnicity or region, and where
(04:04):
each individual can enjoy her his rights as a citizen
and as a High Court justice now has been instrumental
in fighting for the rights of the citizens. She is
well known for her ruling in one of the longest
and one of the most expensive cases in Botswana, the
roy Sasana and others versus the Government of Botswana or
the Central Collegoty Gang Reserve or c kg R, which
(04:25):
led to the sand Or Bostwara people to be able
to return to their ancestral lands after the government had
sought to forcibly removed them. She stated the case was
quote ultimately about people demanding dignity and respect. It is
a people saying, in essence, our way of life may
be different, but it is worthy of respect. We may
be changing and getting closer to your way of life,
but give us a chance to decide what we want
(04:47):
to carry with us into the future, which I thought
was a really powerful statement. And in regards to what
helps her make her ruling, she stated, quote, it all
comes to hard facts before the court, is a law
that applies at the end of it all, it is
the facts properly brought before me that count. And as
a friend always says you're a slave to the Constitution,
you are no slave demand. She served as the High
(05:08):
Court judge for eleven years, moving on to starting her
first firm giving opportunities for women practicing law. DW. Malakayla Attorneys,
Sorry if I mispronounced that. She also worked with the
lgbt Q organization l E G A b I b
O during this time to be able to register as
an organization which would allow for it to be granted funds,
(05:31):
which at one point was seen as unconstitutional, but Dow
worked to sue the government gaining grounds for lgbt Q
plus rights. So in fourteen that was nominated as a
special Elected Member of Parliament or they're also called simple
as e MP and confirmed and appointed as Assistant Minister
of Education. Then was appointed by President Comma as Minister
(05:53):
of Education and Skills Development. In twenty eighteen, under a
new administration, she was appointed as Minister of infrastruct Sure
in Housing Development or later known as Minister of Internal
Affairs and Cooperation, and reconfirmed in twenty nineteen. However, in
twenty twenty she has since announced her retirement. But it
is clear she has had a long lasting impact in
our country where she still resides, receiving awards like Legion
(06:16):
of Honor William Brennan, Human Rights Award from Rutgers and
the Vanguard Women Leadership Award. It's obvious she has left
her mark as an advocate and a fighter and is
known as a nonconformist who has opened up a pathway
for women to continue to fight for justice and equality. Yeah,
she was so fascinating for me to read about and
just about how many things that she was able to
(06:36):
do and pushed through and the forces is not her
only cases that she did, but these are some of
the bigger ones that really helped her stand out. And
even her own case leading the way to have them
revamp their laws and talk about what is sexist and
what is misogynistic has been a big part, especially with
her putting her own mental health on the line and
(06:58):
trying to get this done for her children and how
important it is to have our children be proud of
being citizens of Botswana as well as the U. So
it's really beautiful to see and it's amazing how hard
she fought to get to this point. Yeah, and that's
a theme we've seen in a lot of episodes around
female First or that we're going to continue to see
as we do this series of Women around the World
(07:19):
is women who do put so much of themselves on
the line to help create a better future, the future
they want for younger generations that they want to see.
And it's really inspiring and I'm glad we're getting to
spotlight it in this series. I'm glad we're getting to
talk about women who perhaps you had not heard of listeners,
and I'm always a big proponent, you know me. I'm
(07:41):
a language nerd, so I love the idea of like
going through the Constitution and finding out like all the
misogynistic language, right, I love it. So that brings us
to the end of this installment of women around the world.
If there are women that we should spotlight, that you
want to suggest to us, uh, please do. Our email
(08:02):
is Stuff Media mom Stuff at iHeart meia dot com.
You can find us on Instagram at stuff I've Never
Told You, are on Twitter app mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks
as always to our super producer Christina, Thank you and
thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You
the prediction to I Heart Radio for more podcast for
my Heart Radio. It is a iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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