For many women, short-term side effects include abnormal menstrual bleeding, backaches, fever, lower abdominal pain and headaches. Laboratory studies in the US, where quinacrine sterilization isn t permitted, indicate that quinacrine causes cells to mutate, possibly causing cancer. The program was dropped in 1993 under intense pressure from the World Health Organization. Many rural women in Zimbabwe are sexually and physically assaulted by their husbands and other men. The police see their plight as a domestic affair that has no bearing in the law.
Women are mostly unaware that they can seek redress through the courts.
However, since 1991, the Masvingo Legal Projects Centre has been offering free legal aid advice for rural women. The women work long days in the fields, many times bringing babies and young chldren with them. They do all the house chores. If their husband dies, they either chased away from their homes or forced to re-marry a relative of the late husband, usually a brother, even if he is infected with HIV or AIDS, which is pandemic in Zimbabwe. Sometimes all the property and wealth acquired during the marriage is forcibly taken by the late husband s relatives.