Sexual Violence = Silence

Sunday, 25 April 2010


Friday was the silent protest and one of my best friends (she’s my digs mate as well) partook by having her mouth taped closed for the whole day, in solidarity with rape survivors. The slogan for the day, which was printed across the front of the participants’ T-shirts was “Sexual Violence = Silence.” I was the first person my friend saw after the silence was broken by taking the tape was taken off, and she was extremely emotional. She cried for a long time before she could even start trying to explain the emotions that she experienced during the day as well as talking about what was said at the debriefing. She told me the stories about young women who stood up in a hall full of people and spoke about how they had been raped up to 10 times. Some were raped when they were as young as fourteen. One of the young women who stood up told them that she had also been raped and how this was the first time that she was telling anyone about it. The participants also spoke about how people treated them whilst their mouths were taped shut. Many of them received inappropriate comments from male students, such as “If I had to rape you now, you wouldn’t be able to scream.” It is shocking for me to think that an educated young man can say something this terrible and not realise what the implications are of his words. Some of the reactions towards the participants however, were very touching. One lady in town handed the 1 in 9 pamphlet back to the participant and wrote something along the lines of, “this has happened to me too, thank you for doing this” on the back of the piece of paper.

The rape statistics in South Africa are very scary. Only 1 in every 9 rapes are reported and 55 000 rapes are reported every year. That means that in actual fact approximately 495 000 rapes occur every year. Only four percent of the reported rapes are prosecuted. That means only 2200 prosecutions are made per year. The fact that 100 % of woman in South Africa will have been raped at least once by the time they are 55 year old is terrifying!

I think that the platform that was created for these students through the silent protest was something incredible. Although I was not part of it, it allowed woman to confide in one another and to be surrounded by the amazing empathy and love that women are capable of. It allowed students who had remained silent about being raped a chance to open up and talk about it, allowing the healing process to start for them. I think for everyone it was a highly emotional day and an experience that they are likely to never forget.

I do think however that many students, mainly non-participants do not realise the significance and symbolism involved in the silent protest and the short skirt protest. I think that the University fails in properly informing the Rhodes community about why exactly this is being done, what the tape and short skirts symbolise as well as looking at other gender issues. I’m not sure what the solution for this is. There is a general sense of apathy on campus and although there are debates and lectures presented during Anti-sex crimes week, they are not well attended. Maybe more should be written on studentzone, with a link to a forum where people can start an online discussion or debate. A compulsory course for all University students on gender and sex-related issues would also help.