SA lesbians 'targeted for murder'
 

(SF)

Original Story Here

A lesbian couple in South Africa
Black lesbians often endure the worst abuse for being gay
South Africa needs to do more to protect lesbians who have become targets for murder, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

Three lesbians were brutally killed in July and non-governmental organisations suspect the victims were raped too.

HRW said a "climate of violent homophobia" existed in South Africa.

"Despite legal commitments to equality for all, lesbians in South Africa are still targeted for rape and murder," says HRW's Jessica Stern.

South Africa's constitution is one of the most advanced and progressive anywhere in the world.

In an effort to reverse the wrongs of apartheid, it ensures that human rights, gender equality and gay and lesbian rights are all properly protected.

Last year, same-sex weddings were legalised in South Africa - the first country to do so in Africa, where homosexuality is often seen as taboo.

'Tomboys'

HRW's comments were made in a letter to South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki as the country celebrated National Women's Day.

It asked the government to take action to "make its commitment to equality and tolerance a reality for the nation's gays and lesbians".

HRW detailed the cases of recent lesbian killings.

Last month, two lesbians in Soweto were attacked and shot dead, their bodies were found in a field.

Later in the month, the body of a naked lesbian in Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal was discovered in a field with multiple head wounds.

According to HRW, the police have refused to speculate on whether the victims' sexual orientation was a motive for their murders.

In an earlier case in March, a lesbian in a township near Cape Town was attacked and killed by a mob.

HRW says a friend walking with the woman said their attackers called them "tomboys" who "wanted to be raped".

Correspondents say despite laws that are favourable towards lesbians and gay men, discrimination remains common and black lesbians endure the worst abuse.

I am sick and disgusted with almost all the news from Africa, especially places like South Africa. Stories about the cultural abuse of Women, including "female circumcision" and the practice of "vaginal cutting", (cutting vaginal area nerves then sewing the vagina shut to ensure virginity at marriage) Child soldiers, "conflict diamonds", the resurgence of slavery, the horrible things in Sudan... This is a culture where many men believe they can protect themselves from AIDS by raping small children, that there is some mystical protectiom imbued from this sick vile act. So why should we be surprised at this news?

Here are some other "sex news" posts from posts here in Pixies

" in Marie Claire magazine... Feb issue, they feature an article about men in certain regions of South Africa raping children as young as a 2 month old baby!!! The article said that child rape over in South Africa is so common that no one even does anything about it anymore."

Another...

"Many rapes go unreported in DR Congo
A UN human rights expert has said she is shocked at the scale and brutality of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Yakin Erturk said the situation in South Kivu province was the worst she had seen in four years as special UN investigator on violence against women. She said women had been tortured, forced to eat human flesh and men had been forced to rape relatives.
She said rebels, soldiers and police were responsible.

I know there are many millions of good decent men in Africa, but these are the sign of a sick culture out of control, with toal self destruction not far away.

(Not that the USA has THAT much to brag about, we have our own issues, don't we?)

WW

It is a misnomer to speak of “African Culture” as a homogenous group.

There are many, quite different cultures in Africa, stretching from the Arab Muslims in North Africa, through the Animist tribes further south, into the pastoralist tribes of northern Kenya (my old stomping grounds), which has no one identifying culture. The Swahili are a people and culture found around Mombasa on the coast, and that culture extends south through Tanzania and into Mozambique. There are many other tribes as one goes down into South African Zulu and Xhosa.

And that was just the eastern side of Africa!

Wikipedia lists 72 subcategories under African Culture.

I actually do understand this.
But that's a hisotrical perspective. Africa, like the rest of the world, has changed, evolved... maybe mutated?
Modern communications, things like phones, TV, radio and the effect of modern travel has become part of the very existence of these otherwise disparate cultures.
The fact that HIV is so prevalent in almost all of these areas, a disease that is spread today only by intimate contact, (dirty needles and blood transfusions included) is partly proof of this. So why would we be shocked to learn that the common misconceptions, myths and superstitions about HIV are going to spread via the same pathways? Add to this the spread of (mostly islamic) fundamentalism and the hugely variable interpretations of religious -based rules of behavior, and you have problems for women, Lesbian and otherwise.
As a whole, with specific rare exceptions, most of Africa has had a really dark history where lesbians are concerned. Probably for gay men too, I have not looked that up. My MSN work dealt with the difficulties, both perceived and real, that women in "alternative lifestyles" had in accessing health care. The issues in Africa were more than just a passing concern for me, as I addressed soci-economic, cultural, (not the same as societal, within this context, at least) and infrastructure limitations. (i.e. no hospital, clinics, laboratories or medical schools, so no doctors to provide care, and no infrastructure to support them. No point in testing for HIV, or scheduling for annual Pap smears if there is no laboratory to perform the tests.)
Single women, even widows, have difficulty living with any kind of dignity in most of theses cultures. In many cases they are considered almost subhuman. So how is a Lesbian going to access limited resource health care? Or escape the fate in the article?
This is only partly an emotional argument for me, as I spent literally years researching this and have a reasonable understanding of the social dynamics.

so there...

*thhhpppp*

WW

Wicked Wanda,

May I take it then that you agree that it is incorrect to speak of “African Culture” as a homogenous group?

"otherwise disparate cultures" means yes, there are many cultures, but my point is that in the modern world they are blending and losing much of their individual distinctions.
As time goes by they are becoming more and more homogeneous, and sadly, their common beliefs seem to be mostly the negative ones.

How is that?

I am not going to discuss this anymore.
I just said I was disgusted and saddened by the constant flow of negative news coming from all parts of Africa, Libya in the North, Sudan in the East, Nigeria in the West, the Congo, and SA, and felt it was a bad sign for Africa's future. My Mama visited Africa as a teen, and loved it, always calling it "La Belle Afrique".
No more arguing. It seems to be all I do here anymore, and I 'm tired of it.

WW

Wicked Wanda,

I am pleased that we were able to agree that there are many African cultures. I share your mother’s emotional attachment to that continent.

Less than 2 weeks for any of you making wagers!

I must saythat I am niether pleased nor surprised by this bit of "news". In South Africa, there has been a long history of the laws backing up teh privledged set 9whichever set that may be at any given point in history), and then when the laws are changed, the enforcement of laws protecting the disadvantaged groups has amajor lag.

I only hope that things will get better. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Lil is picking on me again.

:x:

WW

Lil is crazy about you darling! :x:

Africa is a continent gone crazy with "decent" people being marginalised and worse at breakneck speed. Tribalism is the unstoppable force and chaos is it's child.

Africa is not alone.

I worked on a Cancer study with Senegal, West Africa being our biggest collaborators. One of the biggest myths is that if you are HIV positive and have sex with a virgin (even if that is a 2 month old virgin!), your HIV will be cured. Our University worked and still works very carefully with them to get them the necessary resources for education, prevention, diagnosis and treatments. Unfortunately, it is still baby steps over there.

Oldfart,

Tribalism in Africa, if not unstoppable, is endemic. As it tends to limit the opportunities available to people to a smaller, rather than a larger – national – group, it seems to me that it leads to stagnation more often than chaos.

Not that either result is appealing!

jseal

When you see tribalism in the middle east, Eurasia, the Balkans and our own Oz indiginous groups, the way of the future isn't happy.

I despair that "civilisation" can ultimately prevail.

Oldfart,

History teaches me that the way to the future has never been happy. It has always been, is now and ever shall be hard work to order human group behavior. Doing so without lopping off too many heads is even more so.

Steering the various societies through the unavoidable constraints needed to address the climate change our profligate behavior of the last century has brought about will be tricky indeed. I suspect that there will be more than a little chaos.

Yup.