Sexual equality in Burundi and Rwanda

Among the more unusual features of Burundi and Rwanda is women's prominence in public life. The countries had women in prime ministerial positions in the early 1990s, making them pioneers of female political participation in Africa, and women comprise half of the current Rwandan parliament, a world record. Their participation does not seem to be associated uniquely with any political party or donor pressure.

Private life, at least in Rwanda's capital Kigali and southern town Butare, also seems to be characterised by relative freedom for women, who are visible in trade and employment at junior and managerial level. Local and foreign females can be seen travelling alone in public transport and on the streets without evident continuous harassment, although I may have missed it. The relative sexual freedom in the countries also seems to be enjoyed by gays, who are reportedly not criminalised in Burundi unlike much of Africa. I am unsure about their status in Rwanda.

I do not know why sexual rights are relatively advanced in the two countries. Catholicism is the main religion, but one can walk around the cities without seeing any religious symbols at all, so perhaps religious strictures on women do not apply as strongly in the countries as elsewhere. They were historically occupied by German and then Belgian colonists, whose legal enforcement of their moral codes may have been less thoroughgoing than in British controlled lands, or they may have been less preoccupied with sexual matters.