When marriage as an institution ceases to be a partnership: Contested issues of rape and other forms of sexual abuse as condoned by culture

Abstract

Through the ages, the notion of culture has been misused as a weapon by some men to marginalise, oppress or abuse women. Traditional value systems that view women as inferior to men have led to various atrocities committed against this social group in the name of ‘culture’. This leads to the contested issues of rape and other forms of sexual abuse, in and outside of marriage. This briefing examines women's strategies to contest the notion that they are ‘properties’ of men. One such channel is constituted by cultural songs, as exemplified by married Zulu women from Zwelibomvu, a rural village near Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Oppressed women hope that their sung messages will reach the hearts of their partners, as they share the anxieties of their life experience with women in similar situations. Some of the concerns addressed in these songs revolve around issues of what I regard as marital rape, where men, for example, refuse to use condoms amidst HIV and Aids pandemic.

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