Politics

from the wtf department: police in swaziland ban women from wearing clothes that “encourage rape”

December 28, 2012

From the WTF department: Police in Swaziland ban women from wearing clothes that “encourage rape”. More info below.
But really, beyond Swaziland, isn’t time to stop blaming rape on the person who gets raped? Time to freaking get real. Whatever you wear or whatever you did is not an excuse for someone to rape you or for any other unethical behavior.
However, one reader stated on the Daily Mail website: “whilst no woman invites rape, certain steps, decisions, behaviour and characteristics certainly increase the average woman’s risk factor with regards to falling victim to rape, which in a country where up to 25% of the adult population is HIV positive in some areas, makes the ordeal of being raped just the beginning of the end for many victims without access to retroviral drugs.”
Fine, but still, the decision from the Swazi police places the blame on the wrong people, don’t you think? – L.

Excerpts from the Daily Mail article:
“Women in Swaziland have been banned from wearing miniskirts and crop tops because they ‘encourage rape’ – and offenders face a six-month spell in jail.
Police in Swaziland, the last absolute monarchy in Africa and an incredibly conservative nation, have resurrected an archaic colonial criminal act from 1889 to stop women wearing clothes that expose their body.
Swazi police were responding to a march in the second city of Manzini last month by young women, some wearing miniskirts, who were seeking equal rights and safety.
In Swaziland women are legal minors and two-thirds of teenage girls have been victims of sexual assault, according to the South African Independent Online.”
(…) “Women have also been advised on a way to retrieve dropped objects that will not make them ‘culpable’ in their own assaults by ‘exciting males’.
[Swazi police spokeswoman] Hleta said: ‘For females it is polite that when you have dropped something, squat with your upper body still upright and pick up the item rather than bending half your body head first to pick up the item.’ “

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2252955/Rape-provoking-miniskirts-crop-tops-banned-king-Swaziland-offenders-facing-months-jail.html

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