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With the help of a hip hop video, an NGO in Sierra Leone wants to make sure that women who find themselves in the clutches of the law are fully aware of their rights.
Imagine being sent to jail and not fully understanding why you are there. This happens to many women in Sierra Leone, according to the non-governmental organization Advocaid, which offers legal representation women who cannot afford a lawyer. The NGO also helps former female detainees to reintegrate back into society.
Part of the problem is a lack of information. Advocaid has teamed up with well-known hip hop artist Star Zee to create a song and video aimed at educating women about their legal rights.
The song is called "Nar Yu Right," which means "Know your right" in Krio, one of the local dialects in Sierra Leone.
Hip-hop artist Star Zee performing "Nar Yu Right" in a female prison in Freetown.
The tune is upbeat and catchy, but it also has a strong message behind it for women in Sierra Leone. It explains to them that they do have rights under the legal system and should be aware of them.
Sonia Osho-Williams is a program officer with Advocaid. She often helps sex trade workers and says they are continuously subjected to wrongful arrest and victimized because they are not fully aware of their legal rights.
"So these women sometimes feel they do not have a voice and they are incredibly scared of actually going to police because they feel marginalized and that no one is there to support them because they are stereotyped, victimized, discriminated against," Osho-Williams told DW.
She says the song is not just for sex trade workers but for all women who may come into conflict with the law. The song contains messages such as 'don't sign anything you don't understand when taken into police custody.' It also points out that the police cannot detain someone for more than 72 hours without charging them, if a serious crime is not involved.
Osho-Williams says Advocaid wanted to find a creative way to educate women and that is why they asked hip-hop artist Star Zee to perform the song and local production company Concept Multimedia to shoot the video inside a female prison.
