Numbers don’t lie

One is tempted to ask, like one writer posed in More, “Is India the rape capital of the world?” Did you know that a third of rape victims in India are below 18 years? A woman gets raped in India after every 20 minutes! Between 2009 and 2011, 68,000 cases of rape were reported in the country.

Annual Rape Festival

The Annual New Delhi Rape Festival has a prize of US$1,000,000. When a 6-15 year old girl is asked to run so that mature men can run after her and defile her for fun, how do we consider that a society that values women?

Raping Women in Buses

The world listened and watched with consternation the unfortunate event of a woman who was raped in a public service bus. The rapists committed this atrocity against an innocent lady and executed their evil with so much brutality that one would have thought they knew her personally.

Many more cases

There is no end to the cases of rape that emanate from India. There are stories of young girls being raped and then hanged. Recently, a 74 year-old nun was raped by six men. This epitomizes a deeper problem than that which courts and jails can solve. When analyzing these cases, it is important to remember that the reported ones are a very small percentage of actual occurrences.

©EthLeen

The post Glorifying Rape in India appeared first on Alaafia African Family Resource Center.

Majority of rapes remain unreported

If these statistics are shocking, take a moment to reflect and realize that most cases of sexual violence against women go unreported. The Medical Research Council in South Africa estimates that out of 25 cases of rape only one is reported. According to Rape Crisis, a Cape Town website dedicated to breaking the silence in the fight against rape, fear of reprisals, fear of stigma from society after exposure, and protection of family unity and loyalty, are some of the reasons that precipitate a culture of silence by victims of rape.

What about culture?

One of the underlying reasons for the proliferation of rape incidences in the country is culture. Culture in this case is two-pronged. The first understanding of culture is the traditional way of life as passed down from generation to generation. The second approach to culture is what has come to be regarded as a culture of violence in South Africa.

Negative Traditions

South African cultures and its smaller subs-sets represented by various tribes, is predominantly patriarchal. Young men, especially during and after initiation are socialized to hold women in low regard. To initiates, a woman is a weak sexual object that must subject itself to male dominance. Rape is, therefore, a weapon and a form of expression of male machismo.

Culture of violence

The apartheid, pre-independence era may have come to an end in South Africa but there are reverberations of the concomitant of that time. People have become used to violence as a way of life. History has taught the common man that nothing comes without violence. Moreover, since men were at the forefront of the fight against apartheid, those who stood back were labeled women, essentially weaklings. This combination has spawned a culture of rape, one that society almost does not frown upon.

Caught in a trap

South African women are living though precarious times. They live in a country that prides itself of diversity and tolerance, but where women and girls live in fear of sexual violence.

© EthLeen

The post The Role of Culture in the Prevalence of Rape in South Africa appeared first on Alaafia African Family Resource Center.