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 “Short Dresses” Should Not Attract Rape – EXLA Group Gender Programme

By ExLA Group
Press Release Daniel Osei Tuffuor- Executive Director, ExLA Group
MAR 27, 2017 LISTEN
Daniel Osei Tuffuor- Executive Director, ExLA Group

It has come to our notice at ExLA Group Gender Programme (EGGP) that the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon.Otiko Afisa Djaba made a comment advising young girls to be wary of what they wear as they do attract rapists. The Hon. Minister made the comment while speaking at the 90th Anniversary and Speech and Prize Giving Day of the Krobo Girls Presbyterian Senior High School in the Eastern Region. We would like to unequivocally express our unhappiness with the comments based on our own concerns as well as related comments from the general public that we have followed.

The Minister’s comments appear to be biased towards young girls who are victims or potential victims of rape and defilement instead of condemning the act and its perpetrators. Rape and defilement are criminal acts under the Criminal and other Offences Act and can have no justification whatsoever. Sex should be a mutually consented-to act under the law taking age as a prerequisite factor. Under no circumstance should the minister in charge of the sector kowtow to sentiments which seek to make a victim of a crime feel responsible for his/her predicament. Moreover, there is no evidence to buttress the point that rapists are attracted by the type of dress their victims wear. This assertion is highly contestable and should not be echoed on any formal platform, much less by the minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

Furthermore, we think that the Hon. Minister did not err with her sincere advice to young girls. Decency is obviously a radiant virtue in the Ghanaian context and we cannot downplay its value. The main problem thereof is the seeming linkage between short dresses and rape or defilement. It might interest the public to note that majority of reported cases of rape and defilement all over the world happen under domestic settings where the culprits and victims are either relatives, neighbours or some kind of affiliates. Under these circumstances, it would be inappropriate to establish such a linkage between type of dress and rape. There are other bizarre situations where very old women, boys and very little children and infants are raped and defiled. These obviously cannot be coherent with the kind of dresses the victims wear.

In the same speech in which the Hon. Minister made her aforementioned comment, she also sent a strong signal to teachers who impregnate their students of punitive measures to be taken against them which is laudable.

It is however important to remind ourselves that we continue to live in a society where some men think they can use sex in the form of rape and defilement as weapons of punishment and destruction against women and girls who they think are bubbling with pride or are disrespectful. Rape and defilement do not just have physical effects on the victims, they have serious psycho-social effects and therefore any address on the issue must send strong signals of drastic punishment to culprits.

In conclusion, we believe that sexual attraction and the decision to have sex should lead to negotiations and never be a forceful act. Rape and defilement are never justifiable as far as the law and social justice are concerned and intimations of any form of blame for such acts should never be placed at the feet of victims. Finally, we would like to call on the minister to clarify her stance on the matter and respond to the many comments from the general public which show that we are not alone in understanding her to be suggesting some form of justification for rape and defilement.

Signed
Daniel Osei Tuffuor
Executive Director
ExLA Group
0246489782

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