Pubdate: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 Source: Cape Argus (South Africa) Copyright: 2004 Cape Argus. Contact: http://capeargus.co.za/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2939 Author: Ajm, Sabie Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) MINDSET ON WOMEN MUST CHANGE I was sitting down to my second cup of coffee early this month listening to SAFM when the news reader told of a rape suspect who suddenly found himself in far worse trouble. The police had arrived to arrest him and discovered enough dagga to charge him with drug-dealing. I really couldn't believe my ears. How can whoever wrote the news regard dealing in dagga to be far worse than rape? (And the newsreader was a woman). In the current climate of activism against woman and child abuse, someone is showing exactly why South Africa is destined to get nowhere with its endeavours when rape is regarded as a less-serious crime than dagga-dealing. I'm generalising of course, but there is an attitude of acceptance to the crime of rape that has to be eradicated from the male psyche before we can really move on. My theory is that because of the outdated lobola system, and because many South Africans are able to have more than one wife, women are still regarded as a commodity. When this knowledge is imparted on South Africa's youth it compounds the problem, producing yet another generation of young men who have the same attitude as their fathers. Democracy is for the individual, freeing man from the restraints of tradition, yet we are trying to preserve what we know in our hearts has to be left behind. The only way to address woman and child abuse is to change the mindset of the nation's men. They must not just say they want to change, they have to believe it. The women's liberation movement at the turn of the last century was able to take hold only because of the persistence of the women involved and also because of the softening of the mindset of the men of Europe at the time. We know that this movement had no influence at all on any of the blacks in Africa. So the time is now for Africa to really think what its traditions are doing in this modern world. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek