Uganda rejects ‘Monologues’

A plan by women’s rights groups to stage the graphic theater work “The Vagina Monologues” to raise money for war-affected African women failed when the government banned the performance as contrary to Ugandan values.

Several groups had planned to present American playwright Eve Ensler’s performance over the weekend to help women affected by an 18-year insurgency in northern Uganda, as well as domestic and sexual abuse in this poor central African country.

But Information Minister James Nsaba Buturo said the government objected because the show did not focus on sexual violence as activists had said, but on women’s private parts.

Women’s rights activist Sarah Mukasa said, “Although the play has been banned, our point has been made.” The major goal, she said, “was to raise concerns about the rights of women, their suffering on the domestic and other fronts.”

In October, Uganda’s press regulators, the Media Council, fined a private radio station $1,000 for broadcasting a show that featured three homosexuals talking about their lives. The show did not contain any explicit sexual content, but the council fined Radio Simba FM for promoting pornography and corrupting public morals.