Survivors go public to help fight rape

By Daniel Nelson Rape is nothing to do with sex, says Chantel Cooper: “It’s about power, control, dominance. It’s about a sense of ownership.” Cooper knows what she is talking about: she is director of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust in South Africa, which has been dealing with violence against women since 1976. That violence is persistent, and appalling. Two strangers stabbed Alison in the stomach more than 50 times, slit her throat and left her for dead. Four boys gang-raped Zimbini, slit her throat and stabbed her in both eyes. The man who raped 14-year-old Sixolile shot her in the neck: she lived, but the bullet remains. A priest raped Filicity when she was 12 and helping with his washing and ironing. There are mental scars, too. Charlie was raped when she was 28: “ I cried most of time, nightmares, flashbacks, suffered rape trauma syndrome, crying more than usual, trying to sleep, don’t eat, being afraid of the outside world and didn’t wand to go out because I was afraid “I felt I should have seen it coming because he was my best friend. I was just thinking about that the whole time, should have seen it coming, you should have looked at him and realised he was that kind of person. I actually blamed myself for what had happened that 10 minutes affected my whole life. “Ten minutes, five minutes, can affect your whole life. It is a lifetime thing you are going through.” One factor makes listening to these five women’s stories just about bearable: they are survivors who have made the courageous decision to describe their experiences publicly. They feature in a slide show that the Trust hopes will help other women talk and be healed. It will also be used to raise awareness of the problem: 151 women in South Africa report rape every day - and it is estimated that only one woman in six reports the crime. It will be used in campaigns, to provoke discussion in schools, and to lobby for services to survivors and for changes in the law. “I get frustrated that people sit back and don’t acknowledge that it is an issue,” says Cooper. She is adamant that it is not, as it is often treated in South Africa, a ‘women’s issue’. “We are living in a world where we judge the victim and not the perpetrator”, she told a meeting at the South African High Commission in London last week. “It’s time to start changing that thinking. “It is not only the responsibility of women to do something about it. It won’t be addressed unless men and women both act.” The slideshow was unveiled at the meeting, and the photographer, Hazel Thompson, said that as well as encouraging other women to speak out she hoped it would help break myths and misunderstandings – such as the widespread belief that most rape is by strangers. In fact, 87 per cent of rapists are known to the survivor. * Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust * Take the shame out of rape

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