Sexualised Violence in the National Debate

In 2013, the South Africa and the India offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation embarked on a learning exchange project on sexual violence. The project produced two comparative studies which critically examined public responses to the gruesome murder and rape of Anene Booysen in South Africa and Jyoti Singh in India.
 

In November 2013 a dialogue was held with a number of gender-based violence organizations, women’s right activists and the media to engage on the South African paper authored by Joy Watson and Vivienne Lalu.
 

It brings us great pleasure to invite you to the second of these exchanges. On the 3rd of July, we welcome to our office, the author of the India study, Urvashi Butalia. Urvashi is an Indian feminist, publisher and historian. She co-founded India’s first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, and then later established Zubaan Books, an imprint of Kali for Women.
 

Urvashi’s paper, titled “December 16th 2012: A Rape, A Murder and A movement” analyses the political, media and community responses to Jyoti’s death in the context of perpetuating violence against women in India and assesses whether the unprecedented attention to this case lead to any tangible social transformation. A summary of the South African paper will also be presented by the authors.
 

Considering that South Africa and India are both challenged by exceptional levels of violence against women, what traits may these two countries share that breeds an oppressive environment towards women and are there lessons that we can draw from this analysis that may enhance social, political and media responses to sexual violence in each country?
 

Please join us for stimulating conversation on this topic.
 

Date:    3 July 2014
Time:    13:00 – 16:00 (event commences with a light lunch)
Venue: Heinrich Boell Foundation,
             8th floor Vunani Chambers, 33 Church Street, Cape Town
RSVP:    25 June 2014, Claudia.lopes@za.boell.org or 021 461 6266