|
|
|
August 2001 Insights Gender Violence Special Issue
Back to Insights menu
Conspiracy of silence?
Stamping out abuse in African schools.
Schools
in sub-Saharan Africa tolerate serious sexual harassment and abuse,
most of it perpetrated by older male pupils and male teachers. Why is
the school a violent place for girls? How does school culture encourage
gender violence? In the light of the AIDS crisis, sexual violence against
young girls needs to be vigorously tackled. Full
editorial...
Other articles
in this issue:
Criminal
justice? Tackling sexual abuse in schools
Decades of violent
enforcement of apartheid policies have fuelled a culture of violence
in South Africa. Girls are raped, sexually abused, harassed and assaulted
at school by male classmates and male teachers. When governments and
communities tolerate this in school environments, the message to men
and boys is clear: violence and gender inequality is legitimate. How
can schools begin to challenge the notion of violence as a societal
norm? What can be done to ensure that sexually abused girls are not
lost in the shuffle between school officials, police and persecutors?
The
sugar daddy trap. Peer pressure pushes girls into sex
Male sexual aggression
against girls is endemic and institutionalised in Zimbabwe. Girls are
propositioned by male pupils and teachers inside the school, and by
'sugar daddies' outside. Money, gifts and promises of marriage tempt
girls into sexual liaisons. What is the role of the peer group culture
in encouraging abuse? How can the school help to change attitudes and
behaviour?
Dangerous
game of love? Challenging male machismo
Love, in South Africa,
can be a dangerous game for girls. Boys use violence in sexual relationships
to assert their masculinity. The reliance by some boys, however, on
excessive control of girlfriends belies their own vulnerability. How
can the ‘normality’ of sexual violence be challenged?
Mixed
messages
Can education spearhead
the fight against HIV/AIDS? In Uganda the government uses the national
curriculum to promote sexual health in schools. Yet if school culture
reinforces gender inequality - a fundamental cause of HIV spread - will
government strategy work? Are schools a risk factor in the spread of
this deadly virus?
Child
abuse by teachers in Zimbabwe
Analysis of 246 reported
cases of abuse by teachers in secondary schools in Zimbabwe, 1990 to
1997, identified 212 cases of sexual abuse, 33 cases of physical abuse
and one case of emotional abuse.
Safe
haven for girls: can teachers challenge gender violence?
Rape, sexual harassment,
abuse, assault, homophobia - the list is endless. In South Africa, girls
in particular are the victims of school-based violence. How can schools
and their staff - part of the problem - become part of the solution?
Risky
behaviour: can education help?
Transactional sex
between young girls and older men is common place in Malawi and in most
cases sexual misconduct among teachers goes unpunished.
Sites
for sore eyes
The issues around gender violence in schools have been
considered a taboo area for discussion until recently. Excellent material
is now beginning to emerge alongside related information on HIV/AIDS
and adolescent sexual health, violence against women and girls' education.
|
|
| FREE Information Delivery services from
id21: |
 |
| id21 is enabled by the UK Government
Department for International Development(www.dfid.gov.uk) and hosted by the
Institute of Development Studies (www.ids.ac.uk/ids), at the University of
Sussex, UK. Charitable Company No. 877338. id21 is a oneworld.net (www.oneworld.org) partner and a mediachannel
affiliate (www.mediachannel.org). |
Right-to-Reply:
Comment on any of the issues
raised in this Insights.
Read what others
have said.
|
