by Winnie Tuwei
All around the world today, cases of rape have become increasingly many and worrying it is a ticking bomb. In Kenya alone cases like these are what we hear day in day out; be it a father who has defiled his child, a college student going about her studies, job seekers in the ever changing economic times or a grandmother minding her business, they are all potential victims of rape.
You can be raped by anyone and in anywhere be it in a public transport vehicle (a reference to the story in India), an event, work office, school or at home. Where did we lose our dignity as human beings I mean we all have a right to party, to walk freely, to dress the way we want (my dress my choice), to say NO to what we don’t want and be taken seriously for it without feeling like we do not belong.
Blaming Rape Victims is Wrong
‘Rape culture exists because we don’t believe it does’ a tweet by Biama nelson of Fabwil foundation goes to confirm what we all have been thinking and know. Society has normalize this inhumane act, enabling perpetrators to get away with it, based on sentiments such as ‘men will always be men’, ‘she provoked me’, ‘she is loose’ among other terms. Is it because we would rather call a baraza give one cow to the victim’s family and avoid shame, force them to get married to cover the act, or simply we do not respect each other that much.
Many rape victims, for some reason or another due to cultural misconceptions feel neglected as in most cases the culture views this as a taboo or something that can never be spoken of, because we do not understand human rights, the laws against rape or simply how to treat both survivors and the perpetrators therefore advocating against Rape culture seems to be the way to go.
End Rape Culture Fashion Gala
Rape does not discriminate on gender, age, race, religion, level of education or economic status. It is time to tackle the elephant in the room by understanding what makes one person to rape another, is it psychological, peer pressure or personality amongst other factors, #EndRapeCulture event set to go down this year on 1st June 2019 at Zaika Lounge on the 2nd floor at Rupa’s Mall sets to provide survivors of this horrible ordeal to tell their stories and to have a lengthy discussion and forge a way forward on how to handle it.
As ELWYNCHEBBY puts ‘It’s not all about attending an event; it is about being there for a victim. Understanding a victim and trying to break the cycle’, this is in reference to the successful fashion gala to #endrapeculture held last year at Zaika lounge.
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