Rape stalks our country, ravages the innocence of girl infants and children; chuckles evilly into grannies' ears that "this is what you want", "jackrolls" young women to remind them of their place, and buries women's bodies - torn, beaten, dismembered - in shallow graves hidden amongst canefields, sandy stretches of land, the bare veld, and most frighteningly, in their own homes.

South Africa's transition to a democratic state has been accompanied by an intensive focus on the use of the law as an instrument to address high levels of sexual assault as well as other social problems. Feminist legal scholars and activists have been involved in an ongoing critical engagement with government policy and law reform surrounding equality. Many leading feminists have questioned the extent to which the law can ever effectively deter violence against women. Others argue that feminist activists in a transitional democracy are provided with both the space to advocate for substantive law reforms, as well as the opportunity to ensure that the human rights set out in the Constitution are entrenched and interpreted in a way that consciously furthers the rights of women in this country. This article provides the groundwork for a critical analysis of the strategies adopted over the past 10 years.

Contested issues of rape and other forms of sexual abuse as condoned by culture 

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.

This focus investigates the effects of rape trauma on women in the Rakai District of south-western Uganda from the perspective of their own culture. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with female rape survivors, analysed using computer coding and verified through discussion of preliminary results with participants in a feedback meeting. Results indicate that female rape survivors in Uganda experience a multitude of symptoms as a result of their rape, including fear of disease, physical problems, emotional/cognitive difficulties, negative social changes (including relational and sexual impacts), occupational difficulties, lack of security, shame (including issues of secrecy and reporting) and loss of choice.

This perspective is co-written by Louise (who prefers not to use her real name), a survivor of a rape perpetrated by a stranger in 1954, and Jenna, a counsellor and advocate who works at CASA House (Centre Against Sexual Assault) in Melbourne, Australia. The two women met when Louise contacted CASA House to speak for the first time about the sexual assault.

Louise tells how her life, at 17, was irrevocably changed by sexual assault and about the reaction of her Catholic family in the context of Australian society in the 1950s. Louise became pregnant as a result of this rape. She survived the next 50 years by blocking out the reality of how sexual assault had altered the trajectory of her life. At the age of 66 ‘the blind came up' and she became overwhelmed by memories and grief for what had been stolen from her.

South Africa has some of the highest rates of rape in the world. Activists have drawn attention to the devastating effect this has on women and children. However, insufficient attention has been paid to rape - predominantly of men - in prisons.  This article aims to educate gender activists about the phenomenon of prison rape in the context of South Africa. It hopes to make the case that prison rape reflects and reinforces rape culture in South Africa (and elsewhere). In so doing, it aims to galvanise action to prevent prison rape and all forms of rape.

This focus explores Fisi (Hyena) culture, a custom that is practiced in some of the female initiation ceremonies in Malawi. Fisi culture is interpreted through the experience of Nagama (not her real name), a 34-year-old domestic worker in the city of Blantyre, in the southern part of Malawi, who went through the process at the age of eleven and a half. The Fisi culture derives from a man, called Fisi, who is hired to sleep with female initiates to mark the end of some of the initiation ceremonies in Malawi. While this focus does not directly discuss the technicalities of statutory rape, it interprets the practice of the Fisi sleeping with girls during ceremony as statutory rape. It interrogates the factors that have aided the existence of this harmful practice and recommends its immediate eradication. The focus also argues that there is a need for research highlighting girls' experiences with the Fisi to show the extensiveness of damage caused.

This article explores the meanings of rape for 15 women at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, who claim to have not experienced rape. It is based upon qualitative interviews with these women and offers a discursive analysis of their talk. The article shows that the women tend to distance the actual occurrence and threat of rape. At the same time, they assume a natural vulnerability to rape with the result that they imagine and fear it as always possible in the course of their daily lives. The article reconstructs the ways in which the women's imagination and fear of rape adversely impacts upon their sense of safety, agency and belonging in South Africa today. Illustrating the power of discourses to shape both subjective and social realities, it concludes that feminist research and activism must pay attention to the discursive dimensions of the rape crisis in South Africa.

Rape is a common occurrence in South Africa – the country has one of the highest rape statistics in the world, and a woman is raped every 17 seconds. According to the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation (NICRO), only one in 20 rapes are reported to the police.

Agenda intern Deveshni Naidoo speaks to Yasmin Rugbeer, who researches the link between gender issues, rape and HIV/AIDS through the University of Zululand in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, and Michelle Crowley, a social scientist who helps rape survivors reconstruct their boundaries, about rape in South Africa and what can be done to improve the situation.

This article seeks to describe the changing ways in which Rhodes University has addressed rape and sexual assault. By highlighting the evolution of policies and methodologies, it aims to identify possible shortcomings of the past, and offer new strategies and principles which may be useful to fellow institutions grappling with sexual violence issues.

On 29 December 2005, the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) passed the Act to Amend the New Penal Code Chapter 14 Sections 14.70 and 14.71 and to Provide for Gang Rape (RAA). The law is designed to protect individuals from the type of systematic rape that took place during and after the Liberian civil war. The legislature approved the RAA and the president supported it, but it is difficult to implement in court. The current, post-conflict judicial system cannot handle its caseload, so rape victims have little recourse other than the customary law system. Liberians rely on customary law because it is established and understood. While rebuilding the formal system, the government and non-governmental organisations need to explain the RAA and criminal procedure to the population. This profile discusses the creation and implementation of rape law in post-conflict Liberia and explains some of the difficulties of prosecuting rape cases.

Guided by a feminist philosophy, the Agenda Journal provides space and opportunity for reflective, informative and progressive gender publication through a combination of academic/scholarly and activist writing that contributes to a social change and development agenda. The Journal is perceived to be an important gender resource and development tool for academic institutions and NGOs working with women's rights and gender issues.