Corrective rape is a criminal practice first seen in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, whereby lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 women are rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

d by men, sometimes under supervision by members of their families or local communities, purportedly as a means of "curing" them of their homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

.

The term corrective rape was first used in the early 2000s by human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 non-governmental organisations to describe rapes committed against South African lesbians. A notable attack of this kind came in 2008 when Eudy Simelane

Eudy Simelane

Eudy Simelane was a South African footballer who played for the South Africa women's national football team and an LGBT-rights activist. She was raped and murdered in her hometown of KwaThema, Springs, Gauteng.-Football:...

, a member of the South Africa women's national football team

South Africa women's national football team

The South Africa national women's football team, nicknamed Banyana Banyana , is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association.Their first official match was held in 30 May 1993 against Swaziland....

 and a vocal LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

-rights activist in South Africa, was gang raped and murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ed in KwaThema, Gauteng

KwaThema, Gauteng

KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs on the East Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were resettled from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too close to a white town...

. Two of her four assailants were ultimately convicted.

A November 2008 report by the NGO ActionAid

ActionAid

ActionAid was founded in 1972 as a child sponsorship charity when 88 UK supporters sponsored 88 children in India and Kenya, the focus primarily being to provide children with an education. Global accounts are now reported in Euros and in 2007 and 2008 turnover was close to 180m Euros...

 and the South African Human Rights Commission

South African Human Rights Commission

The South African Human Rights Commission was inaugurated in October 1995 as an independent national institution. It draws its mandate from the South African Constitution by way of the South African Human Rights Commission Act of 1994....

reported that corrective rape is a serious problem.

External links

• Samira Ahmed, "'Corrective rape' in South Africa", channel4.com, 2009-03-12 (television news report)
• "'Corrective rape' at schools", news24.com, 2008-12-03