Week 7: Peers' Research

I read the article Denice suggested on “Realizing Women’s Human Rights in South Africa.”  It’s interesting to read that many South African men feel threatened if their wife works or will not accept a woman’s wages.  The four main factors that continue to prevent black South African women from obtaining their rights are the unwillingness of men to adapt to changing gender roles, the perceived incompatibility between cultural preservation and human rights, poor urban planning coupled with the economic vulnerability of women, and the police and courts' inadequate implementation of legislation.  Men in South Africa also argue that there is a bias against them in legislation that is aimed at protecting women.  Things that were maybe acceptable when they were growing up and learning how to treat women are no longer acceptable, and they could face arrest, so it is a difficult to change to make.  Practices such as labola, the groom's family paying the bride's family upon marriage, continue in South Africa today.  Practices like this one allow the idea that women and wives are property to continue living on.  This is dangerous because it is often used as a way to justify abuse against women.  While some of the practices in South Africa are more extreme than the ones here in the US, women in South Africa face a lot of the same challenges women in the United States face as well.

I viewed Larisa’s link on the Sharpeville Massacre.  It was horrifying to read that 180 people were injured and 69 were killed, which is what really triggered the militant approaches in the anti-apartheid movement.  It was also inspiring though that 5,000 to 7,000 black South Africans came together to protest the pass laws.  That is a massive amount of people, and this really caught the attention of the international world.  I think it is especially shocking to see something like that because we often take advantage and forget the privileges we have here living in the United States.  None of us lived through the Civil Rights Era and saw blacks beaten by police officers, much less seen mass amounts of people shot and killed right in front of us, so we don't really think about it.  When we do see something like this happen, it's nearly impossible to continue to turn a blind eye to it.

I looked at the article Hashem posted called, “Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s unsavory next president.”  I never knew he faced many charges of fraud and racketeering, was accused of raping a woman, and has several wives and 20 children.  I guess it's pretty common for government officials in South Africa to be viewed by the public as being corrupt, creating a lack of faith in the ANC.  It's also very interesting that someone could run for president without any education or finances because in the US, most of our presidents attended very prestigious schools and it's pretty much a requirement that they are wealthy as presidential elections are extraordinarily expensive.  I can see how this does appeal to the ordinary man though.  He is a lot more grounded and relatable than our elite politicians.  Perhaps they believe that a president who experienced the same hardships they have will move to action quicker in providing them with the services they need.