18 In Their Capacity as Human Rights Defenders: Women Right to property: An application was filed in the High Court in October 2012 by the chairperson of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) organisation, Martha Tholanah, who was seeking the release of property that had been seized by the police during a raid of the GALZ offices in August 2012 in Harare. The search at the GALZ offices was preceded by instances of police harassment of members of GALZ while some materials including computers and fliers were confiscated. Lawyers also argued that the seized property was not linked to the commission of any crime. The ZRP had opposed the application arguing that it would not release the property until the completion of their probe and because they wanted to use the items as exhibits in court. In the case of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe v Minister of Home Affairs30 the High Court ordered the Commissioner-General of Police and his officers to return the GALZ property. The judge also declared invalid and set aside the warrant of search and seizure issued by the police when they raided the GALZ offices. Part B: Litigators 2.4 The last line of defence Despite the fact that women lawyers are equal to their male counterparts, the “glass ceiling” still exists, regardless of the formers’ education and work experience. While women continue to enter law school, excelling in most cases, the legal profession broadly remains dominated by men. The judiciary, law firms, and the corporate world are still very much male dominated. At the turn of the last century, Leila Robinson, Massachusetts’ first woman lawyer, advised her colleagues: “Do not take sex into practice. Don’t be ‘lady lawyers’. Simply be lawyers and recognise no distinction between yourselves and the other members of the bar.”31 Women  human  rights  lawyers  find  themselves  in  a  unique  position.  For  them,  it  is  not  just  about   “not  being  lady  lawyers”,  but  it  is  also  about  being  lawyers  who  are  practising  perhaps  one  of  the   most   sensitive   and   risky   areas   of   law.   While   it   is   generally   accepted   that   women   lawyers   face   unique   challenges   on   account   of   their   gender,   the   challenges   grow   when   they   are   involved   in   human   rights   work     as   they   place   themselves   in   the   frontline   –   and   in   the   spotlight   –   in   direct   conflict  with  powerful,  and  at  times  well  resourced,  state  institutions  and  actors,  and  sometimes   with  non-­‐state  actors  who  work  on  their  own  initiative,  or  at  times  in  unholy  alliances  with  state   actors,   to   perpetrate   human   rights   violations.   Generally,   there   are   fewer   practising   female   lawyers  than  male  lawyers;  even  fewer  women  lawyers  are  in  private  practice  than  those  in  the   corporate   world   and   other   institutions.   For   those   in   private   practice,   a   substantial   number   of   women  lawyers  usually  prefer  to  deal  with  civil  law  cases  rather  than  criminal  cases,  where  a  lot   of  human  rights  issues  arise.     This   following   section   highlights   the   challenges   faced   by   women   human   rights   lawyers,   the   strategies  they  have  used  to  counter  these  challenges,  and  the  opportunities  they  have  found.     30 High Court Harare unreported case 1240/13. 31 Available at http://www.wmdnh.org/Leila%20Robinson.htm [ Last accessed on 25 April 2013].