Women in #FeesMustFall

THE #FeesMustFall movement that swept through university campuses last year not only had an impact on how fees are structured but was also about young women claiming their space in the national discourse.

Just like the women of 1956, students across campuses forgot about their political and class affiliations and united to fight what they viewed as an unjust system.

Unlike other protests that had rocked universities before, the #FeesMustFall movement had women leading from the front. This time they were protesting against the increase in university fees and at Wits University, the protest was led by Shaeera Kalla and Nompendulo Mkhatshwa among others. Busisiwe Mashiqa led the tumultuous protests at Fort Hare University, fighting for their right to access to higher education.

They challenged increases in university fees, mainly the inability of the “missing middle” to access higher education as they were “too poor” to access loans and “too rich” to qualify for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

The young women refused to be erased from history.

They embraced their femininity and adopted the doek as their headgear of choice for the protests.

In an interview at the height of the protests, Wits University student representative council secretary-general Fasiha Hassan said: “In the run-up to the protest, the majority of the preparations had been done by women leaders and we are reclaiming our space.

“This is also an issue of intersectionality. Yes, we are fighting fees, but we are also recognising that as women we have been marginalised in a certain space. We are reclaiming that.”

Looking back at the protest now, Hassan said the fight was worth it, but more needed to be done.

“It is important that we were able to set the national agenda. The worrying thing is that we have not achieved enough in the movement. Yes, we have achieved a lot, but not enough. It will only be enough once we have quality education for all.”

Hassan said student politics had been changing for at least two years before the #FeesMustFall protests.

Women had been standing up and demanding a fully intersectional movement. They had been asking for the inclusion of black women and gay groups in the dialogues.

Hassan said it had not all been easy.

“We work in a hyper-masculine environment. It is tough because patriarchy is rife, but we are equally strong. If men think we will back down, they have another think coming,” a defiant Hassan said.

The involvement of women led to the protest spilling into other issues that affect them more like gender equality and sexual abuse.

At Rhodes University, in conjunction with the #FeesMustFall movement, anti-rape protests were held. Staff and students called on the university to take action against individuals identified on the #RUReferenceList as “rapists”.

Following the #RUReferenceList protests, the university announced they had set up a task team to investigate sexual abuse on campus.

Part of the task team’s duties was to introduce urgent interventions such as the use of external prosecutors to deal with allegations of sexual assault.

The task team is led by Professor Catriona Macleod, Chair of Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction at Rhodes University.

The protests were not without their repercussions. Student leaders like June Hlongwane paid a high price. Hlongwane was the SRC deputy secretary at North-West University’s Vaal campus during the protests.

She had just completed her BA in Communications and Political Science when the institution told her to leave campus because she was leading the protests.

She was planning to do her Honours in journalism.

“Being told I have to leave campus was hurtful. The institution knew that I wanted to pursue my Honours but did not care,” she said.

But she had no regrets and would do it all over again.

“We showed that women’s voices can be as strong as men’s,” she said.