Tags: gender

The daily backdrop of violence against women in South Africa sets the stage for Thoko's rape.  She wakes up in the middle of the night with a knife at her throat and the case, like so many, is never pursued by law enforcement.  After despairing that she'll never be free from the violence of her past and now present, Thoko realizes that for the sake of her newborn niece she must continue to champion the rights of women and children. 

Tapiwa grew up in Zimbabwe, watching his father manipulate and control his mother. Wondering why women and men are not equals, he joined a gender club while in secondary school and eventually became an activist. He is happy that over the years his father has changed and, like him, now speaks out against gender violence and discrimination.

Morapedi is a young South African man who is eager to continue his education. He mourns the loss of his sister-in-law and regrets he was unable to challenge his older brother, who abused and beat her. Eventually, Morapedi's brother began sleeping around and infected the sister-in-law with HIV, which led to her death. Morapedi wonders how women, who are the soul of the nation, can be treated so badly.

Malusi educates men and boys about gender issues in South Africa.  He came to this work as a result of losing access to his young daughter.  When he and her mother broke up, he was prevented from seeing her and slid into a pattern of drinking and drug use.  Eventually, Malusi saw that his only hope of having a relationship with his daughter was to let go of self-hatred and forge a new and healthy life for himself. 

Kath, who lives and works on sexual assault issues in South Africa, wonders if her story of rape is "worth telling," because to her it seems so normal, so every day. A friend of her boyfriend's raped her years ago, while they traveled overseas. Kath realizes that the tragedy of what happened to her is the tragedy of rape and abuse in general: that so often, we accept it simply because it occurs over and over again.

Jules is a gender activist and HIV educator living in South Africa. She grapples with the fact that one of her most trusted male friends attempted to raper her several years ago, wondering if he viewed her as "an easy target" because she had told him about her childhood sexual abuse. Ultimately, she challenges him to acknowledge the seriousness of his actions and honors those who truly love and care for her.

Dawn is from South Africa. She grew up watching her father beat her mother and went on to live in abusive relationships herself for many years. After finally fighting back against her husband, she understood she didn't want the kind of power he had been wielding over her. She left him and sought help with substance abuse recovery. Both she and her mother are content to be on their own, free from abuse.

Christine was drawn to work with youth at the Rape Crisis Center in Capetown, South Africa as a way of understanding and confronting her own difficult past. As a child, she was sexually abused; as an adult, she continues to live in an unsafe environment. Her goal is to help young people turn away from drugs and violence and learn instead to set limits and make informed decisions about their sexuality.