As we celebrate women this month, we should be mindful that although thousands of women made history on the August 9 – 62 years ago, when they marched against apartheid pass law, today women continue to suffer repression and oppression at hands of the opposite sex and that of their partners. A day hardly goes by without women being subjected to various form of gender-based violence.
There are many different definitions of gender-based violence, but it can be defined as a term used to capture violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships between males and females.
The expectations associated with different genders vary from society to society and over time. Patriarchal power structures dominate in many societies, in which male leadership is the norm, and men hold the most power as opposed to women. These stereotypes often contribute in ways that different genders are viewed and entrenched in our society
GBV can be physical, sexual, emotional, financial or structural, and can be perpetrated by intimate partners, acquaintances, strangers and institutions. Most acts of interpersonal gender-based violence are committed by men against women, and the man perpetrating the violence is often known by the woman, such as a partner or family member.
According to https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/gender-based-violence-in-south-africa, a website that advocates for the rights of women, although accurate statistics are difficult to obtain for many reasons (including the fact that most incidents of GBV are not reported it is evident South Africa has particularly high rates of GBV, including VAWG and violence against LGBT people.
Below are some of the finding of a study conducted by Safer Spaces:
- Whilst people of all genders perpetrate and experience intimate partner and or sexual violence, men are most often the perpetrators and women and children the victims.
- More than half of all the women murdered (56%) in 2009 were killed by an intimate male partner.
- Between 25% and 40% of South African women have experienced sexual and/or physical intimate partner violence in their lifetime
- Just under 50% of women report having ever experienced emotional or economic abuse at the hands of their intimate partners in their lifetime.
- Prevalence estimates of rape in South Africa range between 12% and 28% of women ever reporting being raped in their lifetime.
- Between 28 and 37% of adult men report having raped a woman.
- Non-partner sexual violence is particularly common, but reporting to police is very low. One study found that one in 13 women in Gauteng had reported non-partner rape, and only one in 25 rapes had been reported to the police.
- South Africa also faces a high prevalence of gang rape.
- Most men who rape do so for the first time as teenagers and almost all men who ever rape do so by their mid-20s [15].
- There is limited research into rape targeting women who have sex with women. One study across four Southern African countries, including South Africa, found that 31.1% of women reported having experienced forced sex.
- Male victims of rape are another under-studied group. One survey in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape found that 9.6% of men reported having experienced sexual victimization by another man.
In the wake of social media, stories to sensitize the society, often go viral, but this has somehow sparked a conversation. Whether this is positive or negative it’s a debate for another day. Several campaigns that speak to both perpetrators and victims have been on the roll, but this heinous seems to be on the rise daily.
Addressing GBV is a complex issue and requires multi-faceted responses and commitment from all stakeholders, including government, civil society and all citizens. Government and law enforcement agencies cannot do it alone
As we commemorate August as Women’s Month, lets us be mindful that the women that we celebrate continue to live in fear due to various types of gender-based violence and those that commit these crimes are violating other people’s rights to human dignity, freedom and security. How many more innocent lives must be lost, violated and disrupted before we put an end to those gruesome acts.
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