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Loading ...South African lesbians are rape targets
03.16.2009 2:44pm EDT
(Johannesburg, South Africa) Lesbians are being targeted for rape to “cure” them and make them straight a report by a South African anti-poverty group says.
Rape already is a major problem in South Africa. The report, by ActionAid, found that almost half of all South African women will be raped in their lifetimes. Each year there are about a half million rapes committed in the country and of every 25 men charged only one is convicted.But the ActionAid report said the situation is particularly dire for lesbians, especially in the Black townships in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
“So-called ‘corrective’ rape is yet another grotesque manifestation of violence against women, the most widespread human rights violation in the world today,” ActionAid head Zanele Twala told the Agence France Press.
More than three dozen lesbians have been reported murdered in homophobic attacks over the last decade, but only one case has led to a conviction, the report said, adding that the actual number of rapes is likely much higher.
The study noted that one women’s support group in Cape Town is responding to 10 new cases of “corrective rape” every week in that city alone.
In 2007, Sizakele Sigasa, 30, an outreach coordinator at the Positive Women’s Network and a lesbian and gay rights activist, and her friend Salome Masooa, 23, were tortured and murdered in Soweto.
Sigasa was found with her hands tied with her underpants and her ankles tied with her shoelaces, with three bullet holes in her head and three in her collarbone.
Masooa also had been shot to death. Both women were raped before being killed.
So far there have been no arrests.
TheActionAid report also said that even though the South African Constitution enshrines LGBT civil rights, there is no hate crime law protecting the community.
Sarrellec, is it possible to state your point without the name calling. Yes Africa has it’s problems, but they wont stop by more comments like that. What are you doing to help, if you could? The name calling is not necessary please.
Sarrellec,
“Mud-people.” Mmmmmm. The only folk who jump on that linguistic bandwagon have ironed white sheets.
Sincerely,
James
Aren’t these socially retarded mud-people soooo interesting?
Add to this story the one that these geniuses…or is it genii?…think that tearing out the tissue between the vagina and the anus of infants and then copulating with the resulting hole will cure AIDS.
These are the people Bush is so proud of sending millions and millions of dollars of aid to. As the rest of the world has for a century or so.
Stop subsidizing these genetically doomed beings. It is about time for the rest of the world to concentrate more on the stars and not at all on continuing to provide life support of any kind to these…ahem…”people”, and let them kill each other off in their ignorance and inability to progress.
We don’t need to stop just these rapes. ALL rapes must be stopped. Woman are used everywhere with the terroristic threate of sexual assault. Not just South F&cking Africa.
Maybe we stop the constant violence against all women in this country and at that point we can discuss South Africa. But all the women there, not just the lesbian. We must stop the hatred and breeder (and gay male) oppression of ALL women.
I know there’s sometimes a desire on the part of news organizations not to be advocacy groups, but there are some cases which demand it. What can readers do to get the South Africa government to take action on these rapes and murders?