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Bandits use rape as a weapon of war against women and girl children. They know the scars of rape and sexual assault never heal. They have no respect for human dignity, or the emotional and bodily integrity of women.
The women and girls they rape and abuse are not their opponents, but must pay the price of violation and abuse to feed the egos of the men who have chosen aggression above meaningful engagement. Rape is part of the exercise of their power.
Journalist Karima Brown has come out to say that she has been threatened with rape. She belongs to a group of people in society who are vulnerable to rape and violent abuse just because of their gender.
Brown, like all other women who are journalists the world over, are treated as women first before they are seen as journalists. Most woman journalists have received this threat as a result of the work they do. They are often threatened with rape and violence when they express views that are not palatable among a particular group.
We are a constitutional democracy. There is no war, but here we are with a journalist receiving this kind of threat like those doing work in war-torn countries.
It does not matter what the motivation was for her number to be tweeted out to the public. It does not matter whether an instruction was given for her to be harassed. It still stands to be proved that whoever called her was indeed an EFF member acting in response to the tweet and past inflammatory statements.
Whether the person who called her was part of the EFF or not is not the issue. The issue is that anyone who uses rape as a threat has a serious problem. That person is a symptom of a number of issues in our society.
The first of these issues is institutionalised sexism. We and our leaders pretend to be against violence and sexual abuse, yet, with the slightest provocation, we become perpetrators.
Whether you agree with Brown’s views or not is not the issue, and while publishing her number is not a crime, it is morally reprehensible in this context.
The second is our and our leaders’ propensity to use threats to intimidate those who disagree with or dislike them for whatever reason. Brown’s views are expressed on public platforms where everyone has the right and opportunity to engage.
The third issue is the high level of intolerance and disrespect for the concept of freedom of expression. Like everyone, Brown is entitled to have and express her opinions on any issue.
The fact that she is being threatened with such a heinous crime as rape for expressing her views raises the question of whether those behind this attack – directly and indirectly – are capable of or, indeed, likely to uphold the rights they claim to champion.
In this country, we have a long and bitter history of the suppression of the views that have irritated the powers that be. The apartheid government banned newspapers and enforced draconian censorship measures simply to avoid having its fascist practices exposed.
We should seriously consider whether we are again heading in the direction of fascism if conduct such as this is left unchallenged and there are no consequences for it.
The idea that someone must not express his or her views for fear of retribution and intimidation is one of the key elements of a dictatorship, and begins the conditioning of a society not to ask the most basic questions of their leaders.
In our constitutional democracy, where human rights are entrenched, it is required of us all to interrogate why these kinds of threats are made.
Whether the threats will be carried out or not is irrelevant. In human history, dictators have not always made public pronouncements to encourage the persecution of opponents. All they have to do is send a coded message that a particular person is an enemy and leave it to their loyal followers to execute the persecution.
Liability does not always arise out of direct involvement in an act giving rise to injury. The mere creation of an enabling environment is sufficient to give rise to responsibility. Incitement is defined as the action of provoking unlawful behaviour or urging someone to behave unlawfully.
There is a serious danger in agitating for aggression in dealing with disagreement. Militancy is about using confrontational methods. Being confrontational does not require one to be violent and inhuman. Threatening to rape a woman who disagrees with you is unadulterated violence.
In a situation where the abuse of women is so pervasive, there cannot be any worse lapse of moral courage than to publically give out her phone number. The threat of rape is synonymous with banditry. Bandits thrive on violence and robbery.
Threatening Brown with rape constitutes robbing her of her right to hold and express her views, and is an aggravated form of banditry and is an affront to democracy.
Mannya is a former public servant and an advocate
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