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Thursday, 20 May 2010

"Corrective Rape" in South Africa

“Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence — yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned.” Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General.

The following is an excerpt from a report by ActionAid.org

“They tell me that they will kill me, they will rape me and after raping me I will become a girl. I will become a straight girl.” Zakhe, 23, Soweto.

As we mark International Women’s Day 2009, across the world millions of women continue to be murdered, raped and assaulted with impunity. The UN estimates that at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.1
Violence crosses boundaries of class, race, age and sexual orientation. It causes injury and death, but also prevents women and girls from getting an education, accessing health care, earning a living, to participating in their communities and wider society.
In South Africa, no woman is safe from violence. There are an estimated 500,000 rapes, hundreds of murders and countless beatings carried out every year. Shockingly, it is estimated that almost half of all South African women will be raped during their lifetime.2 And for every 25 men bought to trial for rape in South Africa, 24 walk free.
This shameful record of male domination and violence has helped build an increasingly brutal and oppressive culture, in which women are forced to conform to gender stereotypes or suffer the consequences.
As part of this oppression, the country is now witnessing a backlash of crimes targeted specifically at lesbian women, who are perceived as representing a direct and specific threat to the status quo. This violence often takes the form of ‘corrective’ rape – a way of punishing and ‘curing’ women of their sexual orientation.
In early 2009 ActionAid carried out interviews with 15 survivors of these crimes and the organisations that work with them. They told us their own stories, and many more of friends who had died.

Whilst we are mindful of the fact that
hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project.”
Statement from South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority, January 2009.
South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, pledging equality for all citizens and protection from discrimination on the grounds of gender, race and sexual orientation. But these ideals are rarely translated into everyday practice.
The Equality Act, passed in 2000, specifically outlaws so-called ‘hate crimes’, where people are targeted purely because of their identification as part of a group. Although in theory this includes crimes on the basis of sexual orientation, in practice the only cases that have been brought to trial are on the basis of race
and gender.
This failure to implement the promises of the constitution in defence of lesbians and gays, and a legal and criminal justice system that is largely unresponsive to the problem, means that attackers are rarely brought to justice.
And a culture of rape is already being passed down to younger generations of South African men. Last year a report by South Africa’s Human Rights Commission expressed alarm at the “growing phenomenon of ‘corrective’ rape” in schools across the country, with young boys believing that lesbian girls need to be raped in order to ‘correct’ their sexual orientation.6
Support groups now say that rape is fast becoming the most widespread hate crime against lesbian women in townships across South Africa.7 One Cape Town lesbian and gay support group says it is dealing with 10 new cases every week, with numbers rising fast.8
And it is black lesbians from townships – who lack sufficient support systems and are already disadvantaged by cultural, economic and social discrimination – who are particularly at risk. Gay rights group Triangle’s 2008 research revealed that, while 44% of white lesbians from the Western Cape lived in fear of sexual assault, 86% of their black counterparts felt the same.9
“Every day you feel like it’s a time-bomb waiting to go off, you don’t have freedom of movement, you don’t have your space to do as you please, you are always scared and your life always feels restricted. As women and as lesbians we need to be very aware that it is a fact of life that we are in danger, all women are in danger.” Phumla, Soweto, Johannesburg.





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