Word: raped
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Smith, a free-lance journalist and author, is the most eloquent voice in a country in the throes of an epidemic. South Africa recorded 1,263 rapes in 1979. Today the official annual figure is nearly 50,000, but rape-crisis researchers say only 1 in 35 is reported. That means there are more than 1.6 million rapes a year--the highest incidence in the world, according to Interpol. (In 1998 the official South African rate was 104.1 rapes per 100,000 people; in the U.S. the rate was 34.4 per 100,000.) Worse, the cultural and legal attitudes toward...
...decision incensed anti-rape activists and further energized a movement already fueled by outrage. "Nowhere since the final days of apartheid has there been greater activism in a national social issue," says Smith, 42, who was an antiapartheid journalist of some repute. "Rape victims are speaking out because we are people, not statistics. We have nothing to be ashamed of. [South Africa is] a so-called moral society that does nothing, that should be filled with shame." Indeed, in a country in which race remains hugely sensitive, the debate centers, surprisingly, not on race but on gender equality. An antirape...
...Smith's chief complaints about her case was the insensitivity of doctors and clinics. Now some hospitals and medical institutes are opening rape clinics and training staff in rape-crisis management, as well as drawing up protocols for the forensic examination and care of rape victims. Post-rape antiretroviral drugs are, however, still not available in government hospitals. (So far, Smith is HIV-negative, but she will continue tests for at least a year.) "Now old taboos are going, and people are coming forward with family support to report rape," says Dr. Adrienne Wulfsohn, director of the Albertina Sisulu Rape...
That may be happening. Since 1998, the Criminal Law Amendment Act began providing for more severe punishments for rape, including life sentences for gang rapists. Furthermore, FBI officials from the U.S. are training investigators and prosecutors who will be working in 20 courts devoted to trying sex crimes. These are scheduled to open in April 2000. Meanwhile, Smith refuses to give in to depression. The rapist, she says, "cannot imprison my mind. I have the power." She maintains that "God sent me this challenge. I have to turn this evil into good, and that is why I am speaking...
...stipulated in her will that the collection remain exactly as it was originally curated; however, there are occasional rotating exhibitions of contemporary artwork. Currently on display: "Threads of Dissent" The museum also offers concerts on Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30. Not to be missed: Titian's deservedly famous "Rape of Europa...