The Resurrection

Tweet Anthony Adero granted me the privilege and the honor of discussing with him his redemptive experience following the trauma of being gang raped. We delved into his “afterlife,” his journey through fear, denial and social resistance, and the overwhelming difficulty of finding the expressive language to capture an awful occurrence that grew into a blessing [...]

South Africa: Two years have past yet still no justice for Noxolo Nogwaza

The 24 year old lesbian’s body was found in a ditch in Tsakane, East of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni. Her face crushed with bricks, it was also alleged that her pants were pulled down and she was raped in what is described as a hate crime.

“The truth is, ‘Ngiyesaba’ – I’m shit scared” – Rape and Traumatic Recall

This form of violation is perpetrated with the explicit intention of ‘curing’ the lesbian of her
love for other women. Although many heterosexual survivors of rape attest to the stated intentions of their assailants as punitive (they have done something wrong, and thus ‘deserve’ rape), survivors of ‘curative rape’ make it clear that their attackers were interested in humiliating and punishing them for their choice of sexual identity and lifestyle and in ‘transforming’ them – by coercion – into heterosexual women.

Reducing rape to everyday speech

Tweet From Feminists SA – Rape as slang - or a banal misogyny   Almost everyday, I hear something that disturbs me; the use of rape casually, as a slang, mostly by males, on social media and in conversations. “Rape” is used either negatively to represent damage (“That chemistry exam raped me”) or positively, representing triumph [...]

Haiti – Making it easier to prosecute rapists but will this make it easier to report rape?

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How well this will work remains to be seen. There are millions of Haitian women who fall completely outside the radar of the courts, the government, local and international NGOs and any other official body. There also seems to be a focus on violence in camps but violence also takes place in established neighbourhoods such as Jalouzi and Cite Soleil. And women are often too fearful to report sexual violence especially when the perpetrator is someone they know – family member, neighbor, co-worker. Legal reforms are needed and a step in the right direction but there has to be education and rape centers opened in all the neighborhoods – if women do not have access to support then they the violators will remain free.

Haiti: Occasional Musings, 11 – International Women’s Day

Tweet I have a general wariness around national and international days which are set aside to remind us of a particular issue or celebration such as the Day of the Child, Human Rights Day, Water Day, Day Against Homophobia and International Women’s Day [IWD]. There seems to be something condescending about such designations not least [...]

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