The Gender of Tax, Jalia Kangave performs her spoken word poem

For International Women's Day, we recorded with Jalia Kangave her spoken word poem expressing the experiences of women with the tax system.
The Gender of Tax
A Poem by Jalia Kangave
Hundreds of laws
And decades in tax administration
I never heard about gender and taxation
Now all over sudden
There is a sensation
Perhaps even an obsession
With the gender dimensions
Of taxation
What’s that about?
Well…
A small portion of us
We pay income taxes
But know not the mechanics
Of tax computations
Shady tax collectors
They take advantage of us
Profiteering from our scanty tax knowledge
In the markets
We toil from dawn to dusk
Spending twice as much as men
On toilet taxes
We hold our bladders
Dismiss calls to quench our thirst
While men drink and piss in nearby bushes
For my small shop in Kikuubo
I pay as much as Mwaami Mukasa
Even though my earnings
Be quarter a portion of his
Size, apparently, matters not
When it comes to trade licensing fees
Dues dictated
By location and nature of trade
These taxes
Which should be neutral
Are in fact gendered
By the size of my earnings
The nature of my trade
The services I consume
And sometimes even
My limited representation
In the corridors of power
And yet still I wake up every morning
Wear my smile and a touch of lipstick
Masking the wounds of my battered spirit
I cannot let these taxes
Smother my joy or mute my laughter
I will not let these taxes
Kill the audacity of my determination
Let alone fracture
The grace through which I hope
I am the hope of my daughters
The house that shelters the dreams of my sons
I will keep my business running
It’s the only way I know how to be
Indeed …
It’s the only way I survive
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🎵Music credit:
"Savfk - Journey To The Stars" is under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 3.0) license
‪@SavfkMusic‬
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: bit.ly/journey-...
🖼️Picture credit:
melitas via iStock
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[@joanatim9448]

Thank you for enlightening me. Kudos to ICTD... Well done Jalia.

[@ninah5938]

I love this!

[@ukwezi]

Love at first sight. I hunger for the sisterhood ❤