S cenario 1: The woman who was raped and got harassed by the station commander when she went to report the crime. This same woman became pregnant due to her rape. She last shared with the law officers that the perpetrator is out on bail and is threatening her. By Gil Harper and Cookie Edwards LEGAL AND JUSTICE Scenario 2: The woman who left her relationship the day after he tried to kill
her by forcing pills down her throat. When she went to the police with photographs, they said they could not do much as she didn’t have bruises on her at that time. They could only give her a protection order. The challenge was that when they served her ex with the protection order, her new address had been put on it yet she had explicitly explained that she did not want him to know where she was. She is now living in fear for her life. Scenario 3: The trans woman who was working as a sex worker - forced to because she was struggling to find employment or even a shelter to stay in because of her gender identity. After a brutal rape, she went to the police station only to be told that not only do they not believe that a sex worker can be raped but also how was it biologically possible for a transgender woman to be raped?
Let us consider a few scenarios which are based on the real experiences of women that have experienced GBV and the real battles they face when they take the first step. only 1 in 16 women report cases of domestic violence and this figure is based on the scanty information that service providers have, which can be traced back to actual cases reported. But what of the thousands, possibly millions, of women who do not seek help from service providers or the justice system? Why do they choose not to report their cases? Reporting domestic violence is an ordeal for thousands of women in South Africa . maybe millions, we really do not know. Our statistics do not tell the real story on the ground. It is estimated that
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Dec 2022 | Collective Action Magazine
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