In her message to the country's women on International Women's Day, the Minister of Gender, Youth and Sports, Mrs. 'Mathabiso Lepono said women should first start by empowering themselves, honouring those of their contemporaries who had distinguished themselves by pioneering the fight against gender discrimination.

Government was trying to help break the inequality by appointing women to positions of higher responsibility, the Minister said, pointing to the six ministers in government, three high court judges, the Speaker of the National Assembly as well as the Commissioner of Police as examples of women in high office.

The Minister announced that government was planning to introduce a bill against gender based violence in the National Assembly which would also include the introduction of houses of safety for abused women.

Mrs. Lepono called on women to be more involved in their own and their children's education so as to be able to fight the increasing scourge of child prostitution. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought about another sort of epidemic previously unknown in Lesotho, that of male prostitutes, as families try to eke out a living, she said.

08 March 2005