The Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA) is a non-governmental Organisation (NGO) formed in 1987 by 12 women journalists and broadcaster who strongly opposed the way media portrayed women and determined to join hands to remedy the situation. To-date the membership of the organization has grown almost 10 times. TAMWA through its secretariat and members work, has tremendously impacted on lives of women and children such that it has become a household name to many Tanzanians. As a human rights and gender activist organization, TAMWA seeks to educate, raise awareness and facilitate both women and men to understand their rights and those of women and children and promote them. TAMWA work closely in partnership mainly with journalists and media houses committed to promote peace, gender equality, democracy and development.

TAMWA in an innovative and strategic way-uses radio, televisions, newspapers, its magazine Suti ya Siti, IEC materials, seminars, workshops and outreach activities to advocate for very touchy issues which affect the lives of women and children such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), HIV/AIDS, rape, wife battery, killing of elderly women due to misguided witchcraft beliefs and discrimination against women in decision making. Through the creativity of its members TAMWA uses its famous 'BANG STYLE', which is a systematic way of sending specific messages simultaneously through multi media.

Through its work, TAMWA has managed to create awareness, provoke public debate and action on various forms of gender based violence. The organization on behalf of the Feminism Activism Coalition (FemAct) members is 1998 pioneered advocacy and lobby for the enactment of a law that significantly complement our cause the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act. This law was basically enacted to protect women and children from various forms of abuses.

Further the organization in collaboration with gender-land task force and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working on land right issues lobbies for the enactment of Land Act 1999 which among other things for the first time recognized women's right to own and have a voice on land.

We applaud the government commitment in protecting the right of its citizen. However we would like the government to revisit the provision on female genital mutilation. This provision focuses on children below 18 years only. The reality is that women above that age are also mutilated. It has been established that some families are performing it secretly and worse of it all, to infants as young as three months. This is why TAMWA has decided to intensity awareness campaigns against FGM.