We’re Not All Created Equal Even When It Comes to Sports

We’re Not All Created Equal Even When It Comes to Sports

Well the World Cup came and went almost in the blink of an eye but at the same time there was something not quite up to scratch in the way that the country was summarily portrayed for the outside world. Uppermost in my mind as the very fact that the hierarchy of the game merely wanted to have the event staged in order to show the rest of the world that the country of South Africa had overcome the vast abhorrence known as apartheid . That being said having watched segment of ESPN’s E 60 was appalled to find out that female participants in the game of soccer were being summarily gang raped if there was merely a hint of those players being lesbians . Many of the female victims were in fact lesbians and even with the cultural differences this shouldn’t be of any relevance for these women choosing to participate in a sport (soccer) that’s as beloved worldwide .

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Courtesy of ESPN

Female athletes often targets for rape

By Jeremy Schaap and Beein Gim ‘E:60’

KWA THEMA, South Africa — In the small, neat home she shares with a husband she describes as a broken man, Mally Simelane talks about her daughter, Eudy , who two years ago was gang-raped and stabbed to death.

“These children are ours,” she says, her hands folded across her kitchen table. “The gays and lesbians. I mean, we must accept our children. What they like, it’s up to them. We are not God to stop them.”

But there are those who are trying to stop them. And to punish them. To scare them. To change them. To “correct” them.

At the time of her murder, Eudy Simelane was almost a decade removed from her career on the South African women’s national soccer team. But at 31, she had become a well-respected youth coach, a passionate ambassador for the game she loved. Everyone knew she was gay.

At Eudy’s grave — not far from the creek where her tormentors dumped her mutilated corpse — Mally says, “I look at her picture. Then pray. Cry. Talk to her. Telling her, ‘I miss you.'”

The rationale?

For an act of such violence and malice, it’s called something so clinical: “corrective rape.”

“The phenomenon of corrective rape is based on the mistaken belief that through the violent act of rape, you can alter someone’s orientation, you can alter their identity,” says Jody Kollapen, the former chairman of the South African Human Rights Commission, a governmental organization. “The rationale would be that a woman who chooses to be lesbian has surely not had a relationship with a man, and therefore, if she has a relationship with a man, even if it’s a violent, forced one, that will surely convince her that the lifestyle she chose is inappropriate.”

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Now for those women who weren’t lesbians they were still subject to sexual assaults merely for associating with other women just happen to be of very different sexual orientation. The government of South Africa while being democratic still has long way to go in making all elements of its society placed on an equal footing. Apartheid, as a practice was horrendous in of itself but now sexual assaults on women merely because of their orientation? Clearly the message sent is one of intolerance by those who commit these heinous acts but at the same time whatever one’s moral or religious beliefs there s no way that one can condone those acts being appropriate in today’s society, Certainly not by any stretch of one’s imagination at this moment in time. When those actions did not lead to the women abating ther desires then their ritual rape and murder weren’t out of the question. There have been several such incidents that’ve cropped up cross the country . Many of the crimes in question have ether gone unsolved or un-investigated as the various law enforcement agencies have sought ways to divest themselves of the time to carry out a full investigation. Needless to say, humanitarian voices are now coming into play and forcing Jacob Zuma and his government to take a position on this all and be proactive..

South African President Jacob Zuma no stranger to controversy himself having been tried and acquitted of rape has been less then amenable to the plight of these victims. But then again what should one expect from man whose alleged victim was in fact a teenage girl? . Zuma would even make a provocative statement suggesting that the victim needed sex in order to learn what it was like to know what the pleasure of having a man inside of her meant. Needless to say those remarks by the President have come back to haunt him even to this day.

Courtesy of The Guardian UK

Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores ‘corrective’ attacks

• Women living in fear of brutal assaults by male gangs
• Country’s ‘macho politics’ lead to lack of action

By Annie Kelly of The Guardian UK

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa’s acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa’s best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbians in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterised by what they call “corrective rape” committed by men behind the guise of trying to “cure” lesbians of their sexual orientation.

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It’s bad enough that women are now subjected to numerous atrocities and degradations without now having a government that literally condones these actions nd who remain ominously silent when confronted or questioned on the matter. It is as if Jacob Zuma takes pride in such things. It’s bad enough that the country itself still remains the epicenter for the HIV-aids pandemic across the continent of Africa. Perhaps this too is also lost on Zuma and his government ?

What might be also be even more pertinent here is the very fact that while soccer’s governing body has gone out of its way to fight the rising tide of racism within the sport. Under Joseph “Sepp” Blatter’s leadership there has been very little done by the FIFA President and its members (FIFA ). Which begs the question if he’s unwilling to do anything other than merely suborn what has taken place long before the event was awarded to the country and knowing full well that this was all going on ? How can the game and ts hierarchy live with itself knowing that this continues and was taking place but yet they too also chose to remain silent ? .

Now while the sport of soccer has been something I’ve long loved since childhood. I know for a fact that there is an underbelly to the sport that once it rears its ugly head then others for some reason choose to run away from the ugliness rather than face the truth. They say that the truth shall set you free but freedom for these victims has been something of a myth . Because no one seems to care at all about ther plight . Sadly when your own government can’t show any concern then it gives credence to the fact that society as we know it is indeed changing for the worse and not for the better. Were these homosexual male victims would they be treated any differently and would in fact FIFA be taking a completely different stance altogether ?

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Eudy Simelane’s mother, Mally, at her grave. Mally’s daughter was systemically raped , beaten and tortured and left for dead by her attackers. courtesy of espn/ Gareth Hewitt ……..

Eudy Simelane’s grave in the township of Kwa Thema. courtesy of espn.com/ Joel & Edwrds …….

Mvuleni Fana no longer plays soccer. She was raped in a stadium after soccer practice when she was 16. courtesy of espn/ Joel & Jesse Edwards

Tumi Mkhuma, a corrective rape survivor from Katlehong, now plays for an all-lesbian soccer team. courtesy of espn.com/ ……

Members of a soccer team for Luleki Sizwe, a project in Nyanga that supports lesbians. courtesy of espn / Joel & Jesse Edwards ……

Joseph “Sepp” Blatter President of FIFA the international governing body for the sport of soccer. Reuters/ Nils Horjsforth ……..

Jacob Zuma President of South Africa . AFP/Reuters/ Paul Thuiszen …..

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NB: Should you at all be interested in the subject matter then click on the link provided below to read up on the piece shown by the cable network.

Female athletes often targets for rape ………… . The segment itself was conducted and produced by noted ESPN journalist Jeremy Schaap .

Alan aka tophatal ………………….

Eve ……………………..”Love is Blind ”