Socital standards motivates rape in South Africa

London, Nov 26: In a recent survey, more than one in three South African men admitted to rape.

Nearly nine in 10 men believe that a woman should obey her husband and almost six in 10 women also agreed with thestatement.

Last year a survey by the Medical Research Council (MRC) found that 28 percentageof men in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces said that, "they had raped a woman or girl."

A new MRC study in Gauteng, the country's wealthiest province, found that 37.4 percentage of men admitted having committed a rape, while 25.3 percentageof women said they had been raped.

Asked about sexual entitlement in marriage, only 55 percentage of both men and women said that, they thought "it is possible for a woman to be raped by her husband."

Some 38.7 percentage of men and 29.3 percentage of women thought that "a woman cannot refuse to have sex with her husband."

The survey also found that 32 percentage of men and women agreed that "in any rape case, one would have to question whether the victim is promiscuous," while 20.1 percentage of men and 15.6 percentage of women said that, "in some rape cases, women want it to happen."

"What we see here is a set of attitudes reflecting men's views that they are legitimate in the use of violence against women, and women in many respects acquiescing to this," Jewkes said.

ANI