FREEDOM TO LOVE
OUT OF FEAR OF HER LIFE UNDER MUGABE’S REGIME IN ZIMBABWE, MOUD GOBA FLED TO THE UK. SHE NOW HELPS OTHERS IN SIMILAR SITUATIONS AS WELL AS WORKING WITHIN THE COMMUNITY.
Words: Cliff Joannou
MOUD GOBA
UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group asylum seeker support worker and community activist
There is no life for LGBT people in Zimbabwe. The very thought of same-sex marriages or unions is unfathomable, and any notion of legal rights inconceivable. Women are pressured into marriages and men beaten or arrested if caught with other men. Moud Goba fled this deeply oppressive situation to start a new life where she dreamed to one day love another woman without fear. After a difficult experience seeking asylum she started a new life in the UK, providing support to others who suffer under similar life-threatening situations and even contributed to her new community by helping set-up UK Black Pride.
Could you imagine if it felt illegal, right here in the UK, to do something as simple as hold hands, hug or kiss someone of the same sex? Imagine if falling in love with somebody of the same sex could put your life on the line, placing you at risk of being shunned by your friends and family, beaten up or arrested. For Moud this was everyday life in Zimbabwe, a country in which its highly controversial President, Robert Mugabe, describes homosexuality as degrading human dignity, likening it to behaviour that is ‘worse than dogs and pigs’.
Moud was born in the country’s capital, Harare. She never had any doubt about her sexuality, but fear of being out as a lesbian kept her quiet. “I tried to conform to what is termed ‘normal’ so badly because of fear of being disowned and ostracised. I had to hide my sexuality.” She had to present female lovers as friends and any relationships had to be conducted in utmost secrecy. There was a huge pressure to conform, and Moud did her best to present a front of heterosexuality. Pressure from her family to conform to what was ‘normal’ was eventually so great that she agreed to marry a man introduced to her through her mother’s family. She endured a brief relationship with him, but it inevitably broke down. Before it did, she had fallen pregnant and had her first son, Simba, now aged 14.