South Africa: 'Corrective Rape' Spreads To 'Fix' Lesbians

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs.As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigners and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

Watch a testimonials video.

Read more at The Guardian.

Comments

[RationalityPlease]

08:04 PM on 03/13/2009

Where is your outrage about the lesbians this has happened to here in the U.S.?
You weren't aware it happens regularly? It does. It has happened to me and I personally know over a hundred lesbians, young and old, who have survived this kind of horror. Three who didn't survive. Then there are the thirteen straight girls and women I know--their rapists thought they were lesbians simply because the women expressed no desire to have sex with them.

I see some know who Matthew Shephard was. Not to, in any way, diminish Matthew's story, but please, if you don't know the names of any of the lesbians this has happened to, ask yourself: Why?

Could it be it's because our stories almost never get covered? Could it be it's because when our stories hit the papers you are not as outraged because it isn't really so exceptional to hear about yet another woman, of ANY sexual identity, being raped?

Anyone know the name of the lesbian who was gang-raped in the Bay Area recently because she was a lesbian? Did you notice that story (which was more widely publicized than most)?

The hate campaigns being waged by a wide range of "Christian" fundamentalist groups, the Republican use of the LGBTQ community as a political football have directly caused a huge increase in hate crimes against LGBTQ people, right here in the good old US.

Before you condemn South Africa, take a good look around your own neighborhood.

[Trogenhorse]

11:56 AM on 03/14/2009

Your anger is justified but pull back just a second. I did not hear about this happening and had NO idea this behavior was going on! It does not surprise me as a memeber of a minority group I have known about this behavior ALL of my life.
You should re-direct your anger and let people know YES it does happen and ask what kind of a world do we want to live in?
I am not the most liberal person and in fact would never consider myself a liberal. But when it comes to harming or disrespecting ANY human being I have a huge problem with that.
I live in the reddest of states and have often had to speak up for someone on the sharpe end of the dagger. Please direct your anger to what we can do to make it a safe place for all of us to live

[Trogenhorse]

11:57 AM on 03/14/2009

By behavior I mean violence towards anyone you don't like

[berrycooda]

04:21 PM on 03/13/2009

Maybe they need to put something in the water.

Didn't they used to have something in the Army to prevent the men from
acting on sexual desires.

[Big0725]

02:36 PM on 03/13/2009

And this is why they fought against apartheid? Jesus H. Christ on a crutch!

[southwindow]

01:20 PM on 03/13/2009

Apparently gang rape is a panacea in Africa.

[Big0725]

02:41 PM on 03/13/2009

There is a belief (not only in South Africa) that having sex with a woman that has been unsullied by a man will cure any STD, including AIDS and HIV. There was an outbreak of men raping young girls (I heard of one case a four year-old was raped) thinking that a virgin would cure their ills.

We still have decades until that part of the world catches up to us.

[xzalate]

01:55 PM on 03/15/2009

Do not put the "whole Africa" in the same situation, stupid people exist everywhere, the lack of education, poverty, and the lack of empathy make some people the way they are... and tha's unfortunate.

[tangenjill]

12:20 PM on 03/13/2009

Rape and murder do not FIX anything. Nothing needs fixing except the rapists. Women and their bodies are sacred and do not deserve to be treated thusly. A woman is the one to choose whether she will engage in sexual relations or to have a child. Everything else is debasement.

[nobozos]

12:08 PM on 03/13/2009

Just as a side note....
South Africa is the only other industrialized nation on the planet, ALONG with the United States, that does not offer universal health care to all it's citizens.
Makes one proud to be in their fine company.

[socks1]

11:56 AM on 03/13/2009

Seems rape is the cure-all in male South African society. For such a highly intelligent people this is a stain on the whole nation that will not soon pass.

Some one came up with the rape a baby to cure HIV a decade or so ago too. Stupidity going hand in hand with so much potential is such a gross violation of human standards that it is disgusting.

[Toutlaguerre]

11:48 AM on 03/13/2009

This is very nauseating. Hatred and brutality is never the solution.

[krisgarfield]

11:41 AM on 03/13/2009

A typically tragic result of misogyny, ignorance, and religious zealotry. This is a triangle that's been a mechanism of control for thousands of years.

Nothing new.

[cocolola]

11:17 AM on 03/13/2009

This is so horrific and needs to be addressed asap.

[noudidnt]

11:15 AM on 03/13/2009

Sick

[Topsailsman]

11:10 AM on 03/13/2009

Why does anyone even care if some people want a physical relationship with someone of the same sex?

Why does anyone care? What is the big problem?

[claylandg]

11:00 AM on 03/13/2009

Maybe Oprah should speek and do something insead of building schools or something but education is what is needed but she could help in doing both, she was a women of rape, this is just terrible.

[McBushMcSame]

02:09 PM on 03/13/2009

How does this problem fall on Oprah's shoulders? How is building a school for girls not worthy? How about the South African government working on what's wrong with the country's misogyny rather than relying on a talk show host.

[Ibackobama]

03:41 PM on 03/16/2009

Hear! Hear!

[Bafun]

10:56 AM on 03/13/2009

corrective rape for lesbians (not for gays because a gay is still a man) and rape of little girls as therapy for AIDS. South Africa is a such beautiful country, but ignorance and first of all immense poverty of the black population are responsible for this lamentable behaviour. As I lived for a couple of months in SA white people told me that AIDS is a illness sent by God to "purge" the population and so they hope in 10 years the white population will dominate again! Unfortunately 70% of the white population is waiting.

[EqualMeansEqual]

06:07 PM on 03/13/2009

being poor does not make one gang rape people. Gang rape culture like this did not exist in Africa in the past this is a modern epidemic of sexism and homophobia in Africa. Gays and women are a truly oppressed minority on the continent by the brutality of men. But that not getting 1/8 the attention than the anti-apartheid movement of 20-30 years ago.

[roblabrousse]

10:37 AM on 03/13/2009

How can anyone who perpetrates this defilement of life be considered part of humanity any longer? This is the core of prejudicial hate. Its' tentacles reach out into every heart that harbors the slightest bigotry or prejudice .This earth belongs to every human born on it. No one has a right to deny that nor to impede justice of equality in any form.

This brutality happened in our own country to a young man named Matthew. A black man was dragged behind a truck in Texas This type of filthy minded savagery exists here too. Eudy Simelane didn't deserve this, no one does. To imagine what she went through paralyzes my mind. Perhaps her death will spark support and eventual change.But this good human being will never be restored back to life. How do we pay witness to this? We support the fight against injustice and we must recognize our prejudices.

Eudy Simelane was part of the human community not just an African citizen.