In a corner of Kenya, women rule

Neglected rights create a village

"UMOJA, Kenya -- Seated on tan sisal mats in the shade, Rebecca Lolosoli, matriarch of a village for women only, took the hand of a frightened 13-year-old girl. The child was to wed a man nearly three times her age; Lolosoli told her she didn't have to.

"The man was Lolosoli's brother, but that didn't matter. This is an area where women rule.
''You are a small girl. He is an old man,' said Lolosoli, who gives haven to girls running from forced marriages. ''Women don't have to put up with this nonsense anymore.'

"Ten years ago, a group of women established the village of Umoja, which means unity in Swahili, on a field of dry grasslands. The women said they had been raped, and, as a result, abandoned by their husbands, who saidthey had shamed their community.

"Stung by the treatment, Lolosoli, a charismatic woman with a crown of dark hair, decided no men would live in their village of mud-and-dung huts.

"The men of her tribe started their own village across the way, often monitoring activities in Umoja and spying on the women.

"What started as a group of homeless women looking for a place of their own became a successful and happy village. About three dozen women live in Umoja, and run a cultural center and camping site for tourists visiting the adjacent Samburu National Reserve. Umoja has flourished, eventually attracting so many women seeking help that they hired men to haul firewood, traditionally women's work."
The Boston Globe