Condemn+this+violence+against+women,+Hope+Papo+letter

= **We must condemn this violence against women** =


 * The Star, Letters, June 2, 2005**

The notion that women’s rights, which were ushered by democracy, are the cause of the abominable practice of men killing their partners is pure nonsense.

These killings have been happening for years but are now receiving coverage in the media.

Some of the principles of the liberation struggle were and remain equality and non-sexism.

Because the common and bigger enemy was apartheid, we did not focus adequately on the parallel oppression of women through race, gender and class.

After defeating apartheid, we had to confront the problem of the oppression of women.

This oppression has to be tackled through advocacy, awareness raising, changing the oppressive legal framework we inherited and punishing those who break those laws.

Our terrible socialisation on gender roles (which is perpetuated by women themselves) also creates problems on how men and women relate to each other.

Some women still falsely believe that men are and should be breadwinners and that any man who is unemployed or does not earn a good income is less of a man and does not deserve to be loved.

Men and women should respect each other on the basis of equality and common decency.

Except for biological differences, there is no other rational or scientific evidence which shows that men and women are not equal. But men have been wrongly brought up to believe that they are more than equal than women and are the so-called head of families.

If we are to build an equal, democratic society, we need to confront all these myths which have been developed to oppress women all over the world.

We are still have a long way to go when it comes to dealing with entrenched sexist and patriarchal values in our society.

Until men accept that women have been oppressed for centuries, and that men have been part of that oppression through their action or inaction, there will never be a solution.

Denials of women oppression are nauseatingly common.

When the history of South Africa is written, we should not be found on the side of those who kept quiet when the rights of women were violated through intimidation and violence.

We should be on the side of those who uphold the principles of our hard-won struggle to create a non-racial, democratic, non-sexist, united and prosperous South Africa.

This is a society for which many people paid dearly for.

We cannot rubbish their legacy with our silence.

We should unconditionally condemn violence against women by their partners.

It will be an illusion to say we are building an equal and just society if we don’t deal with this violence.

There is no middle way.


 * Hope Mankwana Papo
 * Johannesburg

From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=225&fArticleId=2543345