Every year, hundreds of thousands of women are raped in South Africa. Despite the laws and policies that have been put in place, patriarchal attitudes and misogynist practice render these laws and policies meaningless in the lives of many rape survivors. Survivors face victim-blaming, secondary victimisation and social stigma when they speak out about the violence they have experienced. Service providers do not always respect the rights of rape survivors and fail to comply with norms and standards set out in national legislation and policy. These are some of the reasons why reporting of rape cases remains low.
Since 2007 Rhodes students, in partnership with the 1 in 9 Campaign have staged the ‘sexual violence = Silence’ protest. The 1 in 9 statistic, also the name of the Campaign, is derived from research conducted by the Medical Research Council in 2005 that which found that only 1 in 9 women who were raped reported the rape to the police.
This year’s protest will take place on 23 April and over 400 people have already signed up.
If you are interested in finding out more about the protest or would like to sign up to participate, please visit the information stall in the library quad this week or find us at Societies Evening. For more information contact l.klazinga@ru.ac.za