RAWA News and Anti-War Site

Today I was reminded, by two separate emails that the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan still requires ongoing attention. RAWA have now produced a great little news ticker to give you a news feed for a website on the situation in Afghanistan. I have installed in on my news page or if you want one for your site, click here. I was also emailed by a group called Arms Against War so I added a link to my site to highlight there efforts to end the war in Iraq.

Where are the men in the battle for equality?

In the song There is a War, by Leonard Cohen, there are the lines: “There is a war...between the man and the woman. There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn’t.” These words capture the essence of research colleagues and I carried out over the last two years on gender and security in a number of countries in transition. As part of the study, we looked at whether the security of women has increased or decreased since 1994 in South Africa. Security includes, according to the United Nations, not only freedom from fear, but also freedom from need or want. So security is tied up with economic and social security, not just protecting yourself from physical harm.

If we think about the security of women in this broad sense, South Africa has made advances with greater representation of women in government and business. Disturbingly, however, our research found that many men think that women have advanced disproportionately. These men argue that the so-called war between men and women Cohen speaks of was over years ago. Some think the victors (women) are now taking their revenge on men and excluding them, making men the new victims. But statistical evidence shows this view is desperately mistaken. It is true that 30% of parliamentarians are now women, positioning South Africa eighth in the world in terms of gender equality in government. This means the country jumped 133 places in world rankings from 1994. A greater number of women are also now moving into managerial positions. But the changes are still miles off 50:50 representation. In the business field, for example, 80% of senior management positions are held by men.

So the war is hardly over and inequality exists on a massive scale. But where does this leave the men in our society who feel they are the victims of the transition? On one level, we have to take their views seriously and listen to what they have to say because some men may have lost their jobs since 1994. But, on the other level, we cannot back away from an agenda that wants equal representation of women. Surely, if we want South Africa to be everything it can be, we must harness the potential of all citizens, regardless of gender or race for that matter.

But furthering this agenda can have devastating consequences. Many of the women and some of the men we interviewed believe that the frustration some men are feeling at being challenged by women in the workplace, or being usurped as the breadwinner in a home, is causing them to act violently towards women. This goes some way towards explaining the high levels of domestic violence in South Africa. At least 50% of women report experiencing domestic violence, whether psychological, physical or financial. This is sickeningly high.

Feeling frustrated or challenged by social developments cannot justify violence. This means that, although we must seek to understand the challenges some men are feeling and address their economic hardships too, we cannot pander to violence as a justifiable reaction to the advancement of one sector of society.

So the war between men and women rages, but the time has come for new alliances. Men need to stand up and be counted. This means not only speaking out about violence against women, but also addressing some of the root causes of it. Inequality is one of these. It is not enough, my fellow brothers, to be horrified at domestic violence or shake your head knowingly next time some awful statistics hit the headline. We have to begin to actively promote gender equality. So let us stop pretending it is someone else’s problem and be man enough to bring this war to an end.

This article by Brandon Hamber was published on Polity and in the Engineering News on 20 October 2006 as part of the column "Look South". Copyright Brandon Hamber.

A Triad of Oppression: Violence, Women and Poverty

Noreen Callaghan, Brandon Hamber & Spiwe Takura

NGO Matters: Poverty Special, South African NGO Coalition, August 1997

Violence against women and poverty literally go hand in hand. It is unfortunately true that a high proportion of all women in South Africa suffer an inordinate number of beatings, rape and emotional abuse. However, being poor increases that risk of exposure to violence enormously.

There is growing evidence that living in impoverished conditions increases a woman's risk to all types of violence. Murder rates worldwide, as an example, are found to be highest in areas where poverty is the most prevalent. This is not to say that there is always a direct relationship between poverty and violence - but poverty is an important factor that needs to be considered when trying to understand the rates and distribution of violence against women.

Women's vulnerability derives not only from the threat of direct violence. They have been the historic victims of political and economic exclusion and have suffered the ravages of patriarchy, sexism and discriminatory practices that have kept them outside of social, political and economic power structures. In addition, socio-cultural conditioning has resulted in the fact that women and girls are often prepared for marriage and child-rearing but not for the job market.

This economic vulnerability limits their chances to change their situation when confronted with violence. Poverty-stricken women, and particularly those in rural areas, are often financially dependent, have limited access to employment and are unsupported mothers who must fulfil the role of caregiver. As a result they have few alternatives and options if they wish to leave a violent situation or community. On top of this, in most impoverished areas in South Africa, women have limited access to health, education, social, psychological and legal services.

The result is that there is evidence to show that African women, who are undoubtedly the poorest sector of our society, are more than ten times likely to experience an incidence of violence compared to their white counterparts. Recent South African police statistics also show that levels of rape are often highest in provinces which are economically less developed.

The reasons for this relationship between violence against women and poverty are numerous. apartheid's economic exploitation and segregation systematically resulted in much higher levels of poverty for black South Africans and women in particular. A range of factors have contributed to high levels of violence against women in poor areas. These factors include transiency of the population, over-crowding, disrupted family life, a mentality of dependency and the socialised acceptance of violence as a way to solve problems.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp / Unsplash

It is thus imperative that programmes designed to eradicate poverty and reduce violence against women address the many social and economic complexities that contribute to the magnitude of oppression that poor women face. While there is a need for broad national policies and campaigns, local programmes targeted to the specific needs of diverse communities are essential. As the needs of rural and urban communities in each province will differ, so too will the approach needed to combat violence and poverty vary in each community. Above all what is needed is a gender focused development strategy which takes into consideration the unique needs of poor women.

A gendered approach to poverty reduction would concentrate on the economic development and empowerment of poor women. It would provide resource generating opportunities that are easily accessible and conducive to a woman's needs and, if necessary, her schedule as a caregiver. In rural areas, it is crucial that indigenous women be given access to the ownership of land. Programmes should provide financial assistance and credit at accommodating interest rates and convenient terms of repayment so as to increase a woman's opportunity to engage in small scale business activities. Programmes must provide education and employment training that builds the capacity of women to become economically independent and thus enables them to alter situations of violence. Functional literacy programmes are a crucial step in empowering women to take control of their own lives.

It is also necessary when designing poverty eradication programmes to address the social and public health depravation of poor communities. Free and accessible health services for women and children must be provided. Services such as shelters for abused women, counselling services and legal resources are essential if women suffering from violence are to be empowered to transform their situation.

As demonstrated, violence against women is a multi-dimensional issue. Despite the complexities, or perhaps because of them, it is important that there be a national learning process against such violence. The problem calls for a campaign on human rights that promotes a culture of tolerance, that cultivates respect for women's economic and social contributions and that advocates for women's safety and ultimately their lives.

There is much to be done in the fight against violence and poverty and the effect these have on women. However, we owe it to those women who suffer from the double oppression of poverty and violence to help them to transform conditions of dependence and hopelessness to those of empowerment and progress.

Callaghan, N., Hamber, B. & Takura, S. (1997). Violence, Women and Poverty: A Triad of Oppression. NGO Matters, Poverty Special, August, South African National NGO Coalition.

Noreen Callaghan is a former Research Intern at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Brandon Hamber is the former Manager of the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Spiwe Takura is a former Training Co-ordinator at the Centre for the study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Rape a symptom of transitional turmoil

Media coverage of cases has mystified and distorted the problem by not showing that this violent crime knows no boundaries of race, class or politics

Since the recent high-profile rapes in the Johannesburg suburbs of Malvern and Observatory, the phones at the Trauma Clinic of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) have been ringing off the hook. In itself, this is not unusual. Nor has the already high proportion of callers seeking counselling because they have been raped, gang-raped or victimized through domestic sexual violence, changed significantly. However, in the past two weeks an unusually large number of the callers have been journalists whose primary questions have been: "Can you give statistics on the upsurge in the number of rapes in the last two months? What is causing this rape epidemic?". To us, it appeared as if South Africa had suddenly discovered rape.

It is not disputed that South Africa has a very high incidence of rape. Nor is there any doubt that for the survivors, rape is one of the most devastating personal traumas - not least because of the stigma and "shame" often endured by victims as a result of the popular misconceptions and mythology associated with this kind of crime. For all these reasons, media attention and civic education with respect to rape is clearly to be welcomed.

But sensationalist and emotional media responses have arguably done more to mystify and distort the problem of rape, than they have done to elucidate it. Any observer of the media coverage given to the Observatory and Malvern rape cases could be forgiven for making at least two assumptions which are intrinsic to the mythology associated with rape in South Africa. Firstly, they may well assume that the majority of rape cases are across racial lines - that most rapists are young black men and that their preferred victims are young white women. Secondly, readers may also assume that rape is mostly committed by sexually motivated strangers.

It is ironic that these are the very myths about rape that so many women's organisations, NGOs and rape counsellors have for years being trying to redress. Rape as a crime - and the trauma which it causes - knows no boundaries of race, class or political persuasion. Although available information is sketchy, it is nonetheless apparent that rape occurs considerably more frequently within racial groups than it does across the "colour line". In South Africa, the majority of rape victims are impoverished black women who can least afford or access the medical and psychological attention which they so badly require.

Furthermore, despite receiving considerable media attention, the majority of rapes do not occur between strangers. More often than not the perpetrators are not unknown intruders, but rather are known to the victims. "Date-rape", rape by neighbours, husbands, fathers and relatives are the most common types of rape. Rather than being a product of rampant sexual desire, rape is an assertion of power and a violent crime of aggression.

Finally, far from being "new", the magnitude of the problems of rape and gang-rape have been enduring manifestations of the turmoil and social conflict of violent transition in apartheid South Africa. For at least the last decade, the political and criminal violence rooted in apartheid - and which has so dominated the front pages of the commercial press - has been matched by incremental increases in the more "private" phenomena of rape, marital battery and child abuse. This has been an ongoing symptomatic manifestation of the growing powerlessness and perceived emasculation of men in this violence-ridden and traditionally male-dominated society.

Source https://www.csvr.org.za/in-the-shadow-of-femicide-the-unseen-trauma-of-families-in-search-of-healing-and-justice/

There are some clear illustrations of this. It is no coincidence that the phenomenon of "jack-rolling" - a colloquial term given to gang-rape - emerged in Soweto during the tumultuous township conflicts of the mid and late 1980s. The term has its origins in the name of a youth gang called the "Jack-Rollers" who's modus operandi was primarily the gang-rape of young girls, rather than any other more "traditional" forms of acquisitive crime.

Rape and violence against women or children, represents a "displacement of aggression" which is rooted in violent social conflict. In this manner, men of all races symbolically reassert their power and masculinity within the last social arenas in which they still traditionally hold sway - over women and children in the family and the home.

Child rape too has continued unabated. On any one day, clinical psychologists at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's Trauma Clinic, may see as many as fifteen cases of child rape. Yet even with a welcome recent upsurge in public awareness of child abuse, such crimes have routinely gone under-reported or under-analyzed in the commercial press.

The actions of gang-rapists cannot be divorced from the decayed social fabric bequeathed by apartheid, including the "bastardization" of the family and the destruction of benevolent parental authority. Nor can it be detached from the deficits in our criminal justice system, the failures of our education system, entrenched sexism, or the history of institutionalised violence in South African society. However, the media have often failed by not reporting on these issues and the complexities of the social phenomenon of rape. Instead they have tended to focus on the "drama" of serial rape or have chosen to report on - and have frequently sensationalized - the human dramas of the victims. This has often involved painting doomsday scenarios of victims who are irreparably damaged and for whom there appears to be no solution and no future. These are precisely the wrong messages to convey to the 20 or so other women whose rapes go unreported for every reported rape case. These scenarios deny the experiences of the women and children who have survived the ordeal of rape and who have embarked on a process of healing.

Perhaps most striking is the lack of public and media attention given to the ordeal which survivors of rape must endure in the form of "secondary victimisation" which they go through at the hands of the criminal justice system in South Africa once they have reported their cases. It is positive that the Observatory and Malvern cases have cast the public spotlight on such issues as the application of bail regulations. However, much of this has been shaped by a punitive obsession with alleged perpetrators, rather than being viewed through the perspectives of the victims themselves.

It is not a tightening of bail regulations that secures successful prosecutions or that will re-build the popular credibility of our criminal justice system. Until we deal with the investigative incompetencies and the grave difficulties of transforming police investigations into successful prosecutions, our criminal justice system will continue to re-victimise rape survivors by failing to apprehend the rapists.

In his stated intention to amend the Constitution so as to limit the right to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the Minister of Justice substitutes our collective human rights for the failures of the criminal justice system, as the major source of impunity for rapists. Yet it is arguable that it is in fact the "politics of impunity" which is more responsible.

Originally published by  Graeme Simpson, Mary Robertson and Brandon Hamber in The Star, 23 January 1997. 

Graeme Simpson is a founder and former Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), Mary Robertson is a former Manager of the Trauma Clinic and Brandon Hamber is Director of INCORE, University of Ulster.