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| Anene Booyson |
According to this cnn article, the details of her rape and mutilation are so horrendous that the family has requested that the media not release the details.
If you think you can handle those details, this jezebel article has them. But I warn you, reading this marks one of the few times that I've had a physically painful reaction to reading something. I'll probably be nauseous the rest of the night.
We know that these breathtakingly brutal crimes happen to women every day. This is a reminder of why 2013 shouldn't just be the year to end rape, it needs to be the year to end rape. This needs to stop.
But how to do this? This is supposed to be a blog about being action-oriented, but reading about this crime has left me at a loss for words. I'm going to have to do some serious thinking about how we can combat crimes like this through the daily actions of our every day lives. Stay tuned, and in the mean time, if you have ideas, please share.
This brutal crime is symptomatic of a brutalized society. South Africa's scars run generations deep and much of the youth are victims of high unemployment, poverty, hopelessness, poor or no education and consequent boredom, drug abuse and all kinds of socioeconomic, political, racial and cultural dysfunction. That said, these cretins are beyond redemption and I don't give a damn about how f*cked up their lot is.
ReplyDeleteI just hope that this violation galvanizes the government to take strong action. What we need is rape awareness school programs and special courts that can fast-track cases.
Most women who do report a rape in SA are met by smirking police officers. Less than 10% of reported sexual crimes result in a successful prosecution, more than one-quarter of South African women are raped (1 every 4 minutes) but only one in 25 report it to the police. South African girls have a bigger chance of being raped than of completing high school.
I just hope and pray Anene Booysen is the tipping point. For me, her attack is. We all need to find ways to heal AND CHANGE a society desensitized and apathetic toward the current moral degeneration.
Learn about the many activist and feminist groups in South Africa. They're up in arms, rallying, pressuring for real enforcement of the laws on the books, and they need our support. Kathleen Day, director of Rape Crisis Center, just had her entire paid staff laid off. Contact her!
ReplyDeleteI was reading about the Oscar Pistorius case when I came across Anene's story. I am truly rattled to my core after reading this story. Not only at the brutality of a rape, let alone a gang rape, but also the mutilation aspect. These men are truly dark souls filled with an immense hatred toward human life and perhaps specifically women. This person's life was cut short in raw hatred, I can only hope she is in peace somewhere else, where this sort of evil does not exist. I have read many articles and have stayed up to date on brutal attacks against women, boht in my local community (California) and around the world. I do hate to say this, but I sometimes fear that the sort of hatred that exists toward women, particularly in men, is something that is deeply engrained in them, more than likely at a young age. Mixing a taste for violence, a group mentality, and a lack of conscience, and there is the recipe for this sort of brutality. My prayers go out to Anene's family and the family of all women who needlessly suffer at the hands of men.
ReplyDeleteOriginally known as For Him Magazine; this men's south african lifestyle magazine has been quite a publication to reckon with right from its creation. The FHM South Africa edition had its humble beginnings in the UK, under the name "For Him" with the title of the magazine later changing to "FHM" in 1994 after it
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