Opinion: Why We Need Intersectionality To Address Sexual Violence
Women holding signs during protests following the death of Uyinene Mrwetyana, a 19-year-old university student raped and killed in South Africa, August 2019. Photo: Guillem Sartorio / AFP / Getty
By Brenda Umutoniwase
There has been a spike in sexual violence across the African continent during the past years. COVID-19 has only made things worse. The plight and angst of women protestors have fallen on deaf ears, revealing the inefficacy of the state in addressing sexual violence. This calls for an honest and progressive approach.
Earlier last year, the President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio declared a state of national emergency over rape, especially of young girls. This came following consecutive incidents in which more than 12,000 cases of rape had been reported in 2017 only. Similarly, South Africa has become infamous for femicide and other forms of gender-based violence to a point of earning the title of “Most dangerous place for a woman”.
Over half of South African women have experienced violence at the hands of an intimate partner according to BBC. Also about 3,000 women were killed in 2018, according to the World health Organization which is equivalent to 1 woman in every three hours. We have been witnessing a wave of protests and women’s marches demanding the state to hold abusers accountable from Ghana to South Africa, Uganda and Malawi.
The often-dismissed issue of rape and other forms of gender-based violence was accentuated by the consequences of the current global pandemic COVID-19, which necessitated idleness, temporary immobility, social isolation and women being in constant proximity to their abusers. This created an escalation of violence against women to what the Executive Director of UN Women called the “’shadow pandemic”.
While leaders and other authority figures like President Ramaphosa of South Africa have condemned rape and other forms of violence against women, it is unlikely that we will see change as long as the underlying social, cultural and political factors behind rape and violence against women remain addressed. Intersectionality, a feminist framework, is a helpful tool when thinking about violence against women and how to address it. We need to use it more.
The meaning of intersectionality
‘Intersectionality’ was coined by the Columbia Law School professor Kimberle Crenshaw. It refers to how race, gender, class and other forms of identity to which a person belongs overlap or intersect to form oppressions or privileges. This was later adopted by politicians, activists and mainstream media to talk about how the synthesis of different categories of identity creates certain conditions in life or how one navigates through the world.
While some women are violated for being women, other women are violated for being women and poor. In other words, even though women are disadvantaged under a patriarchal society, there are grievances that some women are protected from by virtue of their class, physical ability or religion. Rape and sexual violence are an issue affecting women indiscriminately. However, the aspect of poverty to some women, influences the situations in which they find themselves: at the mercy of men, and more importantly, their chances of seeking justice. It influences their believability or dismissal in case of reporting violence that was done onto them.
Intersectionality demands not the sidelining of privileged women grievances. Instead, it urges us to scratch the surface and think about other ways in which women in various identity categories are oppressed and how those multiple oppressions combine/contribute to their violence. It calls into question our perception of women as a monolithic group, facing similar issues.
More importantly, intersectionality challenges us, especially the state, to see female victims within particularities of their lived realities, and addressing violence done onto them with that context in mind. It urges us to acknowledge that poor women may be reluctant to report their abusers since they financially depend on them or avoid seeking justice altogether due to financial intimidation from the abuser. For example, in Rwanda, a woman did not call for the arrest of her husband after he raped their 5-year-old daughter because she was afraid of the responsibility of raising a family on her own once her husband was imprisoned.
Similarly, wealthier women who in some cases have gained access to traditionally male spaces are prevented from breaking the silence on violence done onto them or family members by their adherence to respectability politics. These women, in a phenomenon which bell hooks referred to as “power feminism”, may play patriarchs and avoid the victimhood that comes with admitting to having been violated in fear of appearing to be the weaker gender. This way, their class gets in the way of justice and holding abusers accountable. They choose to protect their image because they know the repercussions of speaking the truth about the violence done unto them in a society that is overly critical and shames victims.
State incompetence in responding to the issue of rape
When it comes to responding to issues of rape, people throw responsibility onto each other like a hot potato. There is culture of blame shifting and avoidance of accountability in the complicity one has in the upholding of rape culture. Government officials are constantly preaching or breaking the silence and urging victims and survivors to come forward. The irony is that when women do report the abuse, they are not believed, nor their abusers tried
Most times when women speak about their abuse, they are accused of lying for various reasons, including the intention of ruining the public image of the alleged abuser. While there incidents of false rape accusations, they only account for 2-10% of total rape accusations. On the premise of a few false accusations, victims are taken through hoops of proving their victimhood. This does not consider the psychological effects rape has on victims, like delayed reporting, and how that affects evidence collection. For example, in Liberia, only 28 cases out of 302 went to trial. In addition to the trauma incurred through rape, the preoccupation and emphasis on evidence in the modern court system also places the burden of proof on the victims while the innocence of the abuser is preserved. This calls into question the efficacy of modern court systems in investigating issues of rape. Should we think of new and innovative ways to give rape victims justice without dragging their humanity in the mud?
UN Women and other responsible parties have suggested reform for stricter laws through which rapists/abusers could be thoroughly held accountable. There is no doubt that the issue of sexual violence could be plummeted through reinforcing the culture of accountability. However, our fixation on the law implies that it is a government regulation and law enforcement issue rather that what it actually is: a societal issue through which rape culture is upheld, women are objectified, men given the benefit of the doubt while women’s grievances are dismissed. The actual problem is a culture that places blame on the victim, questions how they were dressed, what they did or did not do instead of asking the rapist why they did it in the first place.
Referring to rape as “unconscionable level of barbarism and lack of humanity” like President Ramaphosa or a ‘sickness’ also upholds rape culture. Doing this reduces it to isolated cases of moral shortcomings rather than a systemic issue in which men have claimed entitlement over women and get away with anything due to the privilege that patriarchy afford them.
It is imperative that as we think about rape and other forms of sexual violence as a collective responsibility, we also acknowledge that criminalization will only act as a band-aid response. It is important that we become intersectional in how we treat rape victims/survivors and respond to their grievances. Intersectionality offers us a framework to see survivors in their full humanity and allows for multidimensional visions of justice.
About the author
Brenda Umutoniwase is a recent graduate from Cornell University. She studied International Agriculture, Rural Development as well as African studies. She is interested in gender and sexuality studies, history and everything surrounding Black consciousness. Brenda was born and raised in Rwanda and is currently residing in the US.
bu29@cornell.edu