"I" Stories: Not a victim, a survivor
My story is about culture, belief systems, early marriage and alcohol abuse that negatively affected my life as a teenager. My children paid the price as well. My story however has a happy ending....
View Article"I" Stories: Hidden truths
I met my abuser who I confused as my partner for three and a half years when I was seventeen, on the set of his first big break. He was alive and enthusiastic with a magnetism that lured me and...
View Article"I" Stories: Losing everything and finding myself
Freeing myself from a psychopathic lover (I call him a psychopath because of his behaviour and actions, only he wasn’t one as he was fully aware of his dehumanising actions) came at a great cost to me;...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Political change threatening gender commitments?
While South Africa has made all the right moves towards reaching the Southern African Development Community (SADC) target of 50% of women in all areas of decision-making by 2015, it has still failed to...
View ArticleAfrica: African leaders signal commitment to financing gender equality
With Sixteen Days of Activism now in full swing, organisations and governments are focusing significant attention on gender violence and the gender inequalities that play a large role in its prevalence...
View ArticleSouth Africa: Taxis driving message home on gender violence
If you jump into a combi during the next couple of weeks, you may just be greeted with something a bit different from the usual fare of thumping Kwaito and house beats. Launched 4 December at...
View Article2009 Campaign: Commit • Act • Demand: We CAN end violence against women!
While U.S. attention is fixed on Afghanistan’s contested elections and the need to insure a democratic process, in another part of the world, democracy has been under siege at the ballot box with...
View ArticleSouthern Africa: Have your say! - Call for submissions: 16 Days of Activism
Gender Links is commissioning submissions that will be used as part of activities for 16 Days of Activism 2009. Commissioned pieces may be used in a booklet to be launched on Human Rights Day entitled...
View ArticleMen critical to fight against gender violence
It has become all too common that every newspaper edition carries at least one carry a story on domestic violence or rape. Efforts to engage men as partners in the prevention and response to...
View ArticleInform yourself about sexual harassment
Cases of sexual harassment, at for instance a workplace, usually boil down to “he says, she says.” Yet the biggest challenge with sexual harassment is not just proving that it happens, but that more...
View ArticleWomen should exercise social networking caution
As the region’s technological capacity grows, a new kind of gender violence is emerging in Southern Africa. In this new media age, the information super highway has become a tool for social networking...
View Article"I" Stories: Scarred for refusing early marriage
Will society accept me with a disfigured face like I have now? Will I ever walk up the streets out there to go to school after what this cruel man has done to me? I feel I have nothing left to be proud...
View Article"I" Stories: Zambia: No longer scared in a house of my own
Marriage brings happiness to some, but for me it was a nightmare for twenty-five years. I stayed in an abusive marriage, enduring it, always hoping that what did not work out today, would tomorrow. It...
View Article"I" Stories: My father saved me
It's 12 midnight, as I lay awake beside him. My head is filled with confusion as I weigh the options for the next course of action to take. I am struggling to sleep and worse still, I cannot stand...
View ArticleMedia: Part of the problem or solution for gender violence?
Media has always, and will always, have a major impact on the lives of human beings, simply because it has the power to influence! In fact, one of the main objectives of media is to influence change....
View ArticleGive me back my movement!
"We must involve the bosses. We can not move without them. The bosses are our partners. Many of them are just victims of the system too. Most of the employers mean well. All we need to do is raise...
View ArticleUnsung heroes need resources to fight gender violence
As we commemorate 16 Days of Activism, along with highlighting how extensive the problem still is, we also need to pause a moment to thank the people who work tirelessly 365 days a year to help and...
View Article"I" Stories: Using my body for freedom
Mooshoo*: “intoni ingxaki?” That is what the taxi driver said to me after he had repeatedly spoken to me in Xhosa since I had first hopped into the taxi. I usually just ignore them. I say where I am...
View ArticleSouthern Africa: Halve gender violence by 2015
Gender Links has urged Southern African governments to put prevention at the centre of national action plans to end gender violence during the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence. It has also...
View ArticleSpeaking out can set you free
What do you think of when you see a butterfly? Beautiful colours! Freedom after the struggle to break out of a cocoon! The sky is the limit! Reaching up; reaching out! These were just a few of the...
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