Living and studying in South Africa at the moment, I have realised that there is a huge problem with violence and especially violence of a sexual nature such as rape. Thousands of women are raped each year in South Africa and it is quite clear that something needs to be done.

About two months ago, my friend and I were running in Grahamstown South Africa. We run the same route every day; it is an 8km route around Grahamstown and is the prescribed running route for all the schools in Grahamstown. As it was Saturday my friend Jenna and I decided to run later and have a bit of a lie in. We started our run at 7am and were coming to the end of our run when we were attacked by a man with a knife. The man got on top of me with the knife and proceeded to rummage through my pockets for valuables.  It was clear that neither me nor my friend had any valuable possessions on us. But still this man continued to hold me down with the knife and that is when I seriously believed I was going to be raped or murdered. Eventually we were able to get  free and run away. This incident occurred less than a ten metres from a main road and less than a hundred metres from St Andrews school in an upper class residential area in broad daylight. When are you safe? Never.

I believe that the concept of the “female condom with teeth” does not solve the problem of rape. When do I wear this condom? I could be raped anywhere at any time. Every time I go out I would need to wear this condom, because to be quite frank there is a high chance of being raped in South Africa regardless of the time or place. The idea is good but it creates more problems for the victim because not only is she being raped by a man but she is stuck to him until the police or medical services remove the condom. She is completely at the mercy of a man who is likely to be extremely angry and as a result act in vengeance.

Also, this female condom with “teeth” does not address the issue that many women are in fact raped by lovers or potential lovers.

But at least someone is trying to find a solution to this problem. Since the incident I experienced I run with a taser and pepper spray, and this helps me feel not completely defenceless as I previously was. If the female condom with teeth helps to make some women feel safer, then let them wear it.

This entry was posted on June 23rd, 2010 at 10:16 am by Leigh Worswick and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized, Women's issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.