"Corrective Rape: fighting a South Africa Sourge

While South Africa is known broadly as a "beacon of tolerance" in Africa, TIME reports an unnerving article about sexual discrimination and violence in South Africa. According to this article, a disturbing new trend has arrisen which is being called "corrective rape", in which men rape openly-gay women in order to "teach them a lesson," as stated by a 43 year old male currently under trial for rape. It is estimated that ten corrective rapes occur in Cape Town, South Africa alone, per week.

This sees to follow the hopophobic trends that have been seen throughout other parts of Africa (Uganda, Tanzania). South Africa, the first country in the world to outlaw sexual discrimination, and the first country in Africa to legalize same-sex marriage, has a large gay population in Cape Town, which holds annual gay pride parades and has a lively gay nightlife.

Much discrimination happends right outside the city limits in rural areas, which already have extremely high rates of violence against women. Human rights organizations currently estimate: "40% of South African women will be raped in their lifetime, and add that only one-in-nine rapes are reported--which is to say that the average South African woman is more likely to be raped than to attend secondary school."

South African authorities have addressed this issue, by stating that they recognize progress needs to be made, but do not recognize sexual violence and discrimination as being a major issue.

by brianna howell