SRHR Defenders' say on Sexual Assault Awareness

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 The month of April is #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth. 

In my opinion, one of the top 3 reason why we have so many men in prisons is because of sexual assault offences.

What is sexual assault?

The term sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Some forms of sexual assault include:

Attempted rapeFondling or unwanted sexual touchingForcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s bodyPenetration of the victim’s body, also known as rape - According to https://www.rainn.org/articles/sexual-assault

In Zimbabwe sexual assault offences are covered by the law in Section 65 - 72 of the Criminal Codification Act. 

Today SRHR Defenders, including I, were in SAYWHAT's Studio of Choice to have discussions on the subject. We talked of how young people are vulnerable to sexual assault in public spaces such as bus terminals and in tertiary institutions by perpetrators such as lecturers who purposely give bad grades to female students and ask for sexual favours to overturn this; and bus conductors commonly known as 'hwindis' who taunt young women by grabbing them without permission. About sexual assault in our communities, we touched on the precarious conditions young domestic workers live under. They are mostly assaulted by their male employers. 

We also talked of how young people in relationships now have a crazy sense of entitlement in regards to fondling, touching, fingering or kissing their partners without consent. We came to a consensus that young poeple should really familiarise themselves with what consent is, and what the age of consent is. There is a poor fellow in Zimbabwe who recently got arrested for dating a 15 year old even though they had consensual sexual activities. According to law the age of consent is 18 in Zimbabwe. This varies in different countries. Also talked about how young men should understand that arousal caused by women's dressing does not equate to consent.

Finally, in my opinion, consent is the one thing that people should really get into their heads. If young people understand that no one has any right to another person's body, it is until then we will see a decline in sexual assault offences. Victims should never quiet down. The more people open up through storytelling. The more others will be empowered to take action.

#SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth #EndGBV #Globalcitizenship 





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