South Africa is one of the few countries in the world which recognises rape which happens between married couples as a punishable offence.
This is according to Malaysian human and women’s rights advocate and United Nations official Shanthi Dairiam.
She was speaking on Tuesday at an international seminar hosted by the Masimanyane Centre in East London, which looked at violence against women and their human rights.
The seminar, attended by 100 Eastern Cape women, featured international speakers who reflected on the status of women across the globe. The panel of speakers shared their views on the status of women in their own countries.
She said the recognition that rape happened in marriages, was worth celebrating, as most countries did not consider this an offence.
However, Dairiam said despite small victories such as these, the persistence of violence, despite local and global legal strides, revealed the deep-rooted imposition of inferiority on women around the world.
“Violence is prevailing because of misogynistic attacks that seek to keep women in their place. Misogyny denies women their autonomy as individuals.”
Dairiam said police officers often played a role in the failure to bring perpetrators of violence to book, with their negative attitudes towards reported crimes against women. She said cultural norms in society also continued to devalue women and heaped privilege on men.
“When violence is reported, investigations don’t take place. Those investigated are not treated with a sense of urgency. The criminal justice system is not favourable to women,” Dairiam said.
Masimanyane executive director Dr Lesley-Ann Foster said women’s experiences with violence were the same everywhere in the world, despite international efforts to stop it.
She said the international seminar wanted to “place the issue of violence against women in a global framework.
“We have seen countries adopt programmes and give money to initiatives to end violence against women, but recently we’ve begun to see a regression,” Foster said.
Egyptian feminist activist Dr Amal Abdel Hadi said the law was not enough to change the culture of violence against women. “The philosophy of male-centred law needs to be challenged if things are to change.”
Hadi said interactions with women were necessary in order to understand why they stayed in abusive relationships and marriages. “The trade-offs women make in their marriages are important because they reveal what keeps women in these situations. Social media has become a big tool in crossing geographic divides for women, but they need to learn how to protect themselves when using it.”..