(no subject)
Sep. 27th, 2004 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingBus conductors in Swaziland have vowed to assault and rape female passengers who wear mini-skirts, sparking outrage among women's groups in the conservative African kingdom.
The threat followed this week's arrest of two conductors and a bus driver who were charged with indecently assaulting an 18-year-old high school pupil.
The pupil was attacked at a bus rank in Manzini, Swaziland's commercial centre, by a group of men who shouted at her for wearing a miniskirt, cut it off and then gangraped her, witnesses told local media.
A bus conductor calling himself only Licandza said: "Women who wear miniskirts want to be raped, and we will give them what they want."
The bus drivers banned miniskirts on buses earlier in the year, saying they were distracting and encouraged lustful thoughts.
The government said it condemned the crime.
"What the young woman was subjected to could be tantamount to murder, as the health status of the perpetrators is not known," Prime Minister Themba Dlamini said.
Swaziland is ruled by sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch and has one of the highest rates of HIV and Aids in the world.
The threat followed this week's arrest of two conductors and a bus driver who were charged with indecently assaulting an 18-year-old high school pupil.
The pupil was attacked at a bus rank in Manzini, Swaziland's commercial centre, by a group of men who shouted at her for wearing a miniskirt, cut it off and then gangraped her, witnesses told local media.
A bus conductor calling himself only Licandza said: "Women who wear miniskirts want to be raped, and we will give them what they want."
The bus drivers banned miniskirts on buses earlier in the year, saying they were distracting and encouraged lustful thoughts.
The government said it condemned the crime.
"What the young woman was subjected to could be tantamount to murder, as the health status of the perpetrators is not known," Prime Minister Themba Dlamini said.
Swaziland is ruled by sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch and has one of the highest rates of HIV and Aids in the world.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-27 04:53 pm (UTC)Makes me want to walk around Swaziland with a big honkin' machete and a sign saying "Men who rape women want to have their balls cut off, and I'll give them what they want."
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-27 05:45 pm (UTC)And yes, it's stuff like this that makes me want to get medieval with a shotgun. (If Bruce Campbell can do it, so can I, goddamnit.)
Horribly wonrg and out of line, but effective...
Date: 2004-09-27 06:18 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I am sure as hell not going to be wearing a miniskirt on THOSE buses...
Hmm...on that note, I bet it would only take one good example of larabeaton's idea to curb most sexual predators.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-09-27 08:41 pm (UTC)She complained, in the first few days, that everywhere she went she was quite openly groped, grabbed, and prodded, by men who really thought there was nothing wrong with what they were doing because she was female and out without a male protector. It's illegal, technically, but the cops don't care because you're foreign (and hence less reliable than natives), and female (and hence less believable than men). I checked - it's legal to punch them for doing it, because they touched you first, but it's then legal for them to *hit back*, and if you do any serious damage with your first hit you're in trouble for causing injury.
My suggestion would have been to hit them, hard, anyways, but I'm both male and a lot bigger than she is. She spoke about hiring a bodyguard, or simply arranging to travel with her local friends everywhere she goes. She has also apparently resolved the issue since then, but I'm not sure on the details of her solution.
Re: Horribly wonrg and out of line, but effective...
Date: 2004-09-28 12:07 pm (UTC)> larabeaton's idea to curb most sexual predators.
I doubt it; AFAIK and as far as StatsCan can tell, there's been no significant (i.e., most-ish) drop in spousal abuse since the Lorena Bobbit case, which is the closest comparison I can think of.
The obvious solution: mass spontaneous generation of retractable-with-effort vagina dentata in females[1] of the world.
(It's sort of Tepper-ish, in that "no woman may conceive without deliberately and conciously choosing to do so" way.)
Love and coffee,
Frances
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[1] Specifically not saying "women", as that suggests a certain age requirement, and if rapists are going to bleed and die, I'd prefer they'd do so in cases where the victim is not over 16 or 18 or 21 as well.
Re: Horribly wonrg and out of line, but effective...
Date: 2004-09-28 01:01 pm (UTC)She can take it out if she just wants to get busy.
...if she remembers...
Re: Horribly wonrg and out of line, but effective...
Date: 2004-09-28 09:44 pm (UTC)#2: Stephenson called it a "dentata", which is to say a play on "vagina dentata", which is a fictional medical condition for growing teeth in the appropriate area.
#3: Man, Raven was pissed off about that.