RiseUp

Conspiracy theories about Gender- Based violence

Rise Up is a civil society group that aim to educate and inform people about Gender Based Violence by providing accurate information and addressing the misinformation or conspiracy theories that are harmful to the society. Gender based violence undermines a person sense of self- worth and self-esteem, it affects not only physical health but also mental health and may lead to self-harm and depression. Myths and stereotypical frame of mind around gender- based violence shape the way in which society perceives and respond to the violence against women such myths lead people to blame women for rape to make people doubt what survivors say and to survivors feeling guilty and blaming themselves for rape.

Gender based violence is a very shocking reality for so many women in South Africa. The most common conspiracy about gender-based violence is that it only includes physical abuse such as hitting punching and pushing however, that is not the case physical abuse is just one form of it. Gender-based violence can also manifest as emotional, verbal, and psychological abuse. these forms of abuse can take variety of forms such as patterns of degrading or humiliating conduct towards another, including repeated insult or name calling, repeated threat to cause emotional pain or the repeated exhibition of obsessive possessiveness or jealousy, such that it caused this incident invasion of privacy. Economic abuse is another form of violence which includes preventing the victim from acquiring resources or exploiting the victim’s economic resources. The other harmful conspiracy that is associated with culture in some other tribes is that a man cannot rape his wife, the fact is rape is defined by an action and not by the identity of the perpetrator or the survivor, so any forced sexual intercourse is rape, and this is in the international human rights law definitions. Another myth is that men and women are equally violent to each other, the truth is the majority of those affected are women and girls and it is the leading cause of death among them, a woman dies every six hours at the hands of an intimate partner in South Africa.

In conclusion Rise up will be teaching people of all ages about how gender-based violence negatively impact one’s health and how we can prevent it from happening. As an organization we believe that if we raise the awareness of the dangers of harmful traditions and transform those attitudes, challenge, and speak out about the violence, and engage boys and girls to become the agents of change we can fight the gender-based violence.

References

https://www.up.ac.za/student-affairs/news/post_2584284-myths-and-facts-about-gender-based-violence-