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South African lesbians raped as a "cure"
Lesbians in South Africa are being raped to ââ¬Åcureââ¬Â them of their sexuality
According to a new report by international aid agency ActionAid, lesbians are increasingly at risk of rape, and particularly “corrective rape”.
Although South Africa is seen as progressive, and was the first country in Africa to allow same-sex marriages, homosexuality is still a taboo subject, especially in the townships.
In their report, ActionAid quotes one lesbian as saying: “We get insults every day, beatings if we walk alone. They yell, ‘If I rape you then you will go straight, you will buy skirts and start to cook because you will have learnt how to be a real woman.”
Zakkha, a 23-year-old from Soweto, says: “They tell me that they will kill me, they will rape me and after raping me I will become a girl. I will become a straight girl.”
One gay support group reports that it is dealing with ten new cases of lesbians being targeted for “corrective rape” in Cape Town alone.
Thirty-one lesbians have been reported as victimes in homophobic murders since 1998, and of those cases only two have ever made it to the South African courts, and there has been only one conviction.
Laura Turquet, the women’s rights coordinator of ActionAid, said: “So-called ‘corrective’ rape is yet another grotesque manifestation of violence against women, the most widespread human rights violation in the world today. These crimes continue unabated and with impunity, while governments simply turn a blind eye.”
To read the report Hate Crimes: The Rise of “Corrective” Rape in South Africa click here
