I don't think there is any evidence that the rape of more than a tiny proportion babies in South Africa is anything to do with the virgin cleansing myth. The Manager of the Tebby Bear Clinic in Johannesburg, which is an extraordinarily busy child abuse clinic, was quoted in the Pretoria News on 6 December as saying that four years ago he came across a child rape case where the perpetrator believed the myth and that it was the only case he had ever seen in his career. I cannot believe that virgin cleansing can be a strong motivating factor behind rapes and the Tebby Bear clinic never sees them.
Most men in South Africa do not know they have HIV until they are in the terminal stages of the illness there is absolutely no evidence that many rapists know they have HIV - even if they do have it. What is more the ease with which we make the equation of HIV infection with the abject amorality needed to rape a child in search of a cure is the stuff of stigmatisation of people with HIV. Why is South Africa looking for exotic explanations for child sexual abuse? Is it because it is more comfortable to explain it in these terms than to look inwards at society and ask what we are doing and thinking which is causing this? Is it because it is easier to blame myths or alcohol than to challenge ideas about the position of women in the country including the legitimisation of male sexual access to women and girls, the fact that older men who have young teenage girlfriends are regarded by many of their peers as 'super masculine', the fact that in our gender-segregated society male bonding - whether in gang initiation or after drinking bouts - often results in crime being committed and that includes gang rape, and the fact that it is less serious an offence to rape a baby than to go to the police and press and tell them that your baby has been raped by your cousins? In all the debate about baby rapes and the call for death sentences for rape perpetrators there has not been one mention of the link between rape and the position of women in society. There has not been one moments reflection that in a country where between 20-30% of young girls experience forced sexual initiation that a death penalty for rapists could result in a wholesale culling of the male population. Its not 'them' that rape children in South Africa - its 'us'. Its our husbands, brothers, sons, uncles and cousins. Worst of all, as women in South Africa we play our part because we also shape societal ideas about gender identity and gender value. There is an enormous amount of work which needs to be done to end sexual violence against women in South Africa, but we need to focus on the established, mundane, uncomfortable causes. Rachel Jewkes Rachel Jewkes, Director Gender & Health Group Medical Research Council 1 Soutpansberg Road, central Pretoria Pretoria 0001 South Africa tel;fax: (012) 339 8582 tel;work: (012) 339 8525 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anu Pillay wrote: > I would be interested to know if anyone in South Africa has found an > effective way to stem the tide of baby rapes that have emerged in the last > months (babies as young as 5 months old) which is believed to be the result > of the myth that raping a virgin girl will cure AIDS. These incidents have > been so disturbing that I am haunted by them and really want to find a way > to stop this myth from continuing. Does anyone out there have anything to > offer on this issue? > ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
