Outrage!

Some Zimbabwean and local human rights activists have condemned gender-based social media harassment and body-shaming directed at Scorch-ers’ players after their 7-0 demolition of the Mighty Warriors in a 2028 Los Angeles Olympic qualifier in Harare on Tuesday.

GALZ, an association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Zimbabwe, has condemned the online ridicule of Malawi’s women footballers over their perceived masculinity, saying the comments reinforce harmful gender ste-reotypes.

In a statement, GALZ said scrutiny and mockery of the players’ physical appear-ance amounted to policing how women should look and express themselves.

Reads the statement in part: “A woman’s perceived muscular build, facial features, or mannerisms should never be grounds for questioning her womanhood, sexual orientation, gender identity, or subjecting her to humiliation.”

GALZ has since urged the Zimbabwe Football Association and other sporting authorities to speak out against gender-based harassment and ensure that sporting spaces are free from discrimination.

Tabitha (L) and Temwa warming

up before the second leg

in Harare. | Courtesy of Libertin

“All women, in their diversity, deserve to participate in sport without being ridi-culed simply because they do not conform to conventional expectations of femi-ninity,” it said.

In an interview yesterday, Women’s Legal Resources Centre (Wolrec) execu-tive director Maggie Katherewera Banda also denounced the harassment.

She said: “We call upon government to start using Cyber security laws to protect women and girls from cyber bullying. Freedom of speech should not be equated to sexual harassment.

“We also call upon sports governing bodies to start taking punitive measures against countries whose citizens use the cyber space as a platform for harassing women and girls.

“Such harassment will discourage girls to aim higher even in the field of sports for fear of being targeted.”

Malawi National Council of Sports spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa described the online ridicule as disappointing.

He said: “Some of the comments were sickening. At a time the world is pushing for inclu-sivity in sports, it is unfortunate that some people are still promoting cyber bullying. It should not be tolerated.

“Of course, the Zimbabwe fans, who were involved in such acts, did it because they were hurt with the defeat, but that did not happen when Scorchers beat a number of teams at the 2026 Women’s Africa cup of Nations in Morocco. We condemn the acts in the strongest terms.”

Zimbabwe’s popular tabloid H-Metro reported on Thursday that on some social media platforms, “there have been outrageous calls by some Zimba-bwean football fans that the Chawinga sisters [Tabitha and Temwa] should be barred from playing women’s football”.

Part of the article reads:“The calls are outrageous because the two sisters are eligi-ble to feature for their team because they are women. Tshey should not be shamed because of their physical appearance or their extraordinary football talent.

“However, the reality is that such suspicion, even as outrageous and unfortunate as it is, has been trailing the two sisters for some time now.”

The Malawi Women’s National Football Team progressed to the third round 9-0 on aggregate, having won the first leg 2-0 at home.

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