SA enfeebled by rape
Parliament’s monitoring committee on the improvement of the quality of life and status of women heard lately that rape was now probably the most serious public health problem for South African women.
Professor Lynette Denny told committee members that statistics revealed that more South African women were reported to have been raped than to have contracted tuberculosis.
Estimating that actual rapes were twice as many as those reported to the authorities, she called on the government to lead a multi-dimensional response from all sectors of society.
The Catechism calls rape the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person, and stresses that it violates justice and charity, and is always an intrinsically evil act.
The common good of society is seriously impaired when any of its members, and women in particular, are not respected for their human dignity and bodily integrity. Women have won many a battle to gain equality in a male-dominated world. Where they are still threatened because the laws of the land are inadequate to protect them, they must be given the support and encouragement of the community. Professor Denny’s appeal to the government to take the lead in coordinating this support and encouragement is an initiative that deserves practical consideration.
Jesus showed great deference to women at a time when their social status was inferior to that of men. Growing devotion to Mary his mother over the years, it has been said, led to the growth of Christian chivalry and the custom of men behaving courteously towards women.
Time may have altered much of that, but South Africans cannot ignore the danger of their becoming a seriously sick and feeble society.
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