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Louisa Steyl for the TygerBurger
The team at Women24 were excited to take part in Rhodes universities annual #RUsilent campaign at the Company Gardens in town on Friday afternoon.
The protest is now in its 7th year and since its inception, has slowly grown, raising more attention and awareness with each passing year.
It aims to show solidarity with rape survivors who are silenced by sexual violence, and this year 1500 people attended the rally in Rhodes alone.
For such a noble and inspiring campaign we are reluctant to write about the very few people that made the effort to come down to the Cape Town protest to pledge their support.
We stood in the company gardens waiting for the angry mob to descend waiving their fists and thrusting the catchy-slogans of their placards into the faces of passers-by.
But there was no angry mob.
Just a small group of passionate and dedicated men and woman who walked silently through the company gardens with duct-taped mouths and solemn expressions declaring war on the men that rape, the media who fail to report it and the legal-system that does nothing to change it.
So we’re not going to write about the people were too lazy/tired/uninterested to attend, but the group of 30 or so men and women who did attend.
And the work they are doing to change perceptions of a country embedded with a culture of chauvinism and a society with the tendency to look the other way.
The small handful that sat together in the Gardens that afternoon was not enough, but hopefully their message will ripple, growing louder with each tweet, amplifying the words of Jennifer Thorpe, who urges women to speak out against their perpetrators, promising that she believes them.
Jen is one of many of the volunteers that worked so hard to put the event together and spoke passionately about the 72 500 women who are raped each year in South Africa.
This statistic is even more horrifying when considering that only one rape in nine is ever reported, which translates to a sickening round figure of 650 000 rapes annually.
Our police service is not properly trained to deal with rape survivors making it even more difficult for these women to speak out, and with men being released on bail for R60, the state is not doing nearly enough to keep the criminals off of our streets.
The crowd spoke about education and rehabilitation to help victims know their rights, while others shared personal experiences, offered remedies and listened carefully.
Solly Philander spoke about changing the way we as a nation operate; too often overlooking the violence happening right in front of us.
He made an impassioned call to the media to prioritize the stories of rape that should be making headlines every day.
We hope this article, though not enough, will continue the ripple of the #RUsilent campaign, growing ever-louder until every rape is reported and every perpetrator prosecuted.
Click here to view the We are not silent gallery.
If you want to more information about how you can help or get involved in the campaign contact:
Larissa Klazinga
Rhodes Student Services Officer
0824305707
l.klazinga@ru.ac.za
Please direct all Silent Protest media queries to:
Michelle Solomon
Media liaison, Silent Protest
Email: chair@genderactionproject
Cell: +27723968302
Twitter: @mishsolomon
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
The protest is now in its 7th year and since its inception, has slowly grown, raising more attention and awareness with each passing year.
It aims to show solidarity with rape survivors who are silenced by sexual violence, and this year 1500 people attended the rally in Rhodes alone.
For such a noble and inspiring campaign we are reluctant to write about the very few people that made the effort to come down to the Cape Town protest to pledge their support.
We stood in the company gardens waiting for the angry mob to descend waiving their fists and thrusting the catchy-slogans of their placards into the faces of passers-by.
But there was no angry mob.
Just a small group of passionate and dedicated men and woman who walked silently through the company gardens with duct-taped mouths and solemn expressions declaring war on the men that rape, the media who fail to report it and the legal-system that does nothing to change it.
So we’re not going to write about the people were too lazy/tired/uninterested to attend, but the group of 30 or so men and women who did attend.
And the work they are doing to change perceptions of a country embedded with a culture of chauvinism and a society with the tendency to look the other way.
The small handful that sat together in the Gardens that afternoon was not enough, but hopefully their message will ripple, growing louder with each tweet, amplifying the words of Jennifer Thorpe, who urges women to speak out against their perpetrators, promising that she believes them.
Jen is one of many of the volunteers that worked so hard to put the event together and spoke passionately about the 72 500 women who are raped each year in South Africa.
This statistic is even more horrifying when considering that only one rape in nine is ever reported, which translates to a sickening round figure of 650 000 rapes annually.
Our police service is not properly trained to deal with rape survivors making it even more difficult for these women to speak out, and with men being released on bail for R60, the state is not doing nearly enough to keep the criminals off of our streets.
The crowd spoke about education and rehabilitation to help victims know their rights, while others shared personal experiences, offered remedies and listened carefully.
Solly Philander spoke about changing the way we as a nation operate; too often overlooking the violence happening right in front of us.
He made an impassioned call to the media to prioritize the stories of rape that should be making headlines every day.
We hope this article, though not enough, will continue the ripple of the #RUsilent campaign, growing ever-louder until every rape is reported and every perpetrator prosecuted.
Click here to view the We are not silent gallery.
If you want to more information about how you can help or get involved in the campaign contact:
Larissa Klazinga
Rhodes Student Services Officer
0824305707
l.klazinga@ru.ac.za
Please direct all Silent Protest media queries to:
Michelle Solomon
Media liaison, Silent Protest
Email: chair@genderactionproject
Cell: +27723968302
Twitter: @mishsolomon
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
