HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A law prohibiting abortion services for women raped by their husbands and girls under the age of 18 is unconstitutional, Zimbabwe’s High Court has ruled.
In his ruling handed down on Nov. 22 and made public this week, Judge Maxwell Takuva said since Zimbabwe’s laws already criminalize marital rape and sex with a minor, victims should be allowed to abort if they become pregnant.
The ruling is significant, given Zimbabwe’s restrictive abortion laws that often lead women and girls into illegal and unsafe backstreet abortions that in many cases turn fatal.
Abortion is allowed in very few circumstances in Zimbabwe, including such as if the pregnancy endangers the life of a woman, or if there is a risk of a physical or mental defect “of such a nature that (the child) will permanently be seriously handicapped.” Women can also access legal abortion services in cases of unlawful sex such as incest.
Zimbabwe criminalized sex with any person below 18 in September following an earlier constitutional court ruling ordering parliament to raise the legal age of consent for sex to 18 from 16. But the highly restrictive Termination of Pregnancy Act still denied abortion services for girls under 18.
“There is no doubt that it is torture, cruel and degrading treatment for a child to carry another child, for a child to give birth to another child or for a child to be forced to illegally abort because of cruel circumstances,” said the judge.
The government did not mount any opposition to the case, which was brought by a women’s rights group, although the ruling must still be approved by the Constitutional Court to become effective.
The judge said providing access to safe and legal abortion services for underage girls “is significant in light of the massive instances of teenage pregnancies in Zimbabwe, and consequently illegal teen abortions and teenage mortalities.”
The country of 15 million people records about 77,000 unsafe abortions annually, but many others go unreported. Many girls and women die from abortion complications each year, according to the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF.
Teen pregnancies are rife in the southern African country because of lax enforcement of laws, cultural and religious practices and widespread poverty that also make it difficult for girls and women to access contraceptives and clinics.
Almost one of every four girls falls pregnant between the ages of 10 and 19, according to figures by the government and UNICEF. One of every three girls is wed before age 18 in the deeply conservative southern African country where girls are usually culturally forced to marry men responsible for their unplanned pregnancies.
FILE - Virginia Mavhunga, a 13-year-old teenage mother, stands at the entrance of her home in Murehwa, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Zimbabwe's capital Harare, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, File)
LONDON (AP) — An artist whose work exploring her Scottish Sikh identity includes a vintage Ford car draped in a crocheted doily won the U.K.’s prestigious Turner Prize on Tuesday, during a ceremony picketed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Jasleen Kaur was awarded the 25,000-pound ($32,000) prize by actor James Norton at the Tate Britain gallery in London.
Kaur used her acceptance speech to express support for scores of demonstrators outside. She is among signatories to a letter demanding Tate, which runs several major British art museums, cut ties with donors who are linked to Israel over its war in Gaza.
“This is not a radical demand,” Kaur said. “This should not risk an artist’s career or safety.
“We need a proper ceasefire now,” she said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas health officials in Gaza. Israel launched the war in response to the militant group's Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage.
A jury led by Tate Britain director Alex Farquhar praised the way 38-year-old Kaur “weaves together the personal, political and spiritual” through “unexpected and playful combinations of material.”
Her winning exhibition mixes sculpture, print, everyday items — including family photos, a Ford Escort car and the popular Scottish soda Irn Bru — and immersive music to reflect on her upbringing in Glasgow’s Sikh community.
Three other finalists – Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson and Delaine Le Bas – received 10,000 pounds ($12,670) each.
Named for 19th-century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and founded in 1984 to reward young artists, the prize helped make stars of shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst, potter Grayson Perry, sculptor Anish Kapoor and filmmaker Steve McQueen.
But it has also been criticized for rewarding impenetrable conceptual work and often sparks debate about the value of modern art, with winners such as Hirst’s "Mother and Child Divided,” which consists of two cows, bisected and preserved in formaldehyde, and Martin Creed’s “Lights On and Off” -- a room with a light blinking on and off – drawing scorn from sections of the media.
In 2019, all four finalists were declared winners after they refused to compete against one another, “to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity.”
In 2021, all five finalists were collectives rather than individual artists.
The award was initially open to artists under 50 but now has no upper age limit.
Works by the four finalists are on display until Feb. 16.
Jasleen Kaur is announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (David Parry/PA via AP)
Jasleen Kaur is announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (David Parry/PA via AP)
Jasleen Kaur is announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (David Parry/PA via AP)
FILE - A woman walks past an artwork by Jasleen Kaur during the Turner Prize 2024 press preview at Tate Britain in London, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych, File)
FILE - A woman walks past an artwork by Jasleen Kaur during the Turner Prize 2024 press preview at Tate Britain in London, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)
