Rwanda to probe pastor who branded women 'source of all evil'

The Rwandan Media Commission (RMC) is set to deliberate on anti-women comments made by a preacher on a local radio station. RMC said it will sit early next week following a complaint filed by a women’s civil society Pro – Femmes Twese Hamwe.

A former Seventh Day Adventist priest in late January 2017 is quoted to have said that women were the source of all evil.

‘Women are out of God’s favour, there is nothing good you can find in women. If you have read the Bible, who brought sin into the world, it was not a man, Nicolas Niyibikora tld listeners on Amazing Grace radio.

Apart from being contradictory to the laws of our country starting with the Constitution, the sermon is also at odds with international principles against discrimination and undermining human beings.

But chairperson Jeanne d’arc Kanakuze of the pro-women group said the comments were discriminatory and could incite hate against women.

“Apart from being contradictory to the laws of our country starting with the Constitution, the sermon is also at odds with international principles against discrimination and undermining human beings,” Kanakuze said.

They are demanding that the pastor and station must be made to publicly apologize to all Rwandans and to women in particular. The pastor and the management of the station will thus have to appear before the regulator to explain the incident, executive secretary of the RMC confirmed.