belong to them. Khwezi is 31 years old. At 31 very few, except nuns, yogis celibate since childhood or the Virgin Mary, can claim to have no sexual history. The message being conveyed is that if any woman or child decides to lay a charge of rape, this is how she will be crucified.
Govender is not writing about Matokazi here, although what she says is equally relevant. Women’s sexual histories and general life experiences render them hard to believe because they are not innocent. At the time that both Matokazi and Khwezi testified, sexual history was permissible as part of the court proceedings. As Govender shows, contrary to popular opinion, reporting rape and going through the criminal justice system channels places women at further risk, rather than promising relief.
Like Bennett, Govender shows the impossibility of the expectations placed on those who report rape. Any sexual history complicates – and at times nullifies – her story of rape. Referring specifically to the legal treatment of women who report rape, Navi Pillay cautions “[i]n the eyes of the law, a woman is both Eve and Eva. As a pure, fragile female she must be specially protected; as a seductive sex object, from whom men must be protected. In both cases women are the victims”, thereby driving home the manner in which the attitudes outlined in this chapter are not merely societal but those that resonate with legal treatment of rape complainants as well.
I believe an end to rape is both possible and worth fighting for. Given the range of ways in which the violation and interpretation of rape work in counterintuitive ways, as various chapters show, I suspect that we need to be especially imaginative to decrease the instances of rape, to change how we think rape works and to make it harder to rape.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
