{UAH} WOMENS HISTORY MONTH: PRESIDENT IDI AMIN WAS FIRST UGANDAN LEADER TO INITIATE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT GOVERNMENT POLICIES.

Picture: A young President Idi Amin & First Lady Mama Maryam Amin.

At a time when traditional values strongly discouraged and even prevented women from being fully productive members participating in all activities in modern African society, His Excellency President Idi Amin Dada, in a pro-active policy effort to support women empowerment, was the first Ugandan leader to appoint women in positions that had until then been the exclusive preserve of men. In his first year as President of the Republic of Uganda, he appointed Uganda's first ever female cabinet minister. He then also appointed Uganda's first ever female judges, Uganda's first ever female ambassadors and Uganda's first ever female directors.

His government would also see Uganda's first ever female pilots, Uganda's first ever female soldiers, the country's first female doctors, female engineers, female sports persons and female entrepreneurs.

In a 2013 research, Alice C. Dickers wrote: "One of the most curious outcomes of the Amin government was the liberation and emancipation of women. In 1972, Amin opened the country's economic space to women, whether they engaged in small trade or received shops 'abandoned' by the departed Asians"

The first administration in Ugandan history to pursue a women emancipation/gender equality policy was the Amin government.

Not even the British colonial regime, nor the country's first independence government, nor the subsequent 1966 Milton Obote dictatorship, or the multiple Tanzania-supported UNLA regimes of the 1980's, none made any effort to specifically support women despite all their claims to intellectualism, knowledge and higher education credentials.

Instead, it was the much demonized and barely-educated Idi Amin who would actually be the first Ugandan leader to come out and famously urge women "not to remain in the kitchen".

He relentlessly called on parents to ensure that girls attended school, and strived to see that women fully participated in all sectors of the national economy in order to develop themselves, their children, their families and their country.

Years after his departure, young ladies, housewives and mothers around the country would still be saying "Amin taught us to work". And society as a whole could be found asserting that "Amin opened our eyes to business".

Uganda was one of the few African countries that celebrated the famous international Year for women, a UN designated year in 1977. Celebrations took place in all districts of the country throughout that year under presidential decree by Field Marshal Idi Amin.

The incorruptible patriot is still known by all citizens to be "the only Ugandan leader who truly loved his country and it's people". He was the first Ugandan leader ever to take affirmative action to enable women fully participate as equals in all fields of the economy and public service.

Signed: Hussein Lumumba Amin

7th March 2021

Kampala, Uganda.

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