Web diary

Today I decided on a new title for the film. I want to call it “Behind the Barbed Wire”. The barbed wire refers to the extremely painful experience of rape and sexual assault, which people tend to steer clear of because it is too painful and confronting to go there. It also refers to what is going on behind the security fences and barbed wire of South Africa. There is enormous life, vitality, humanity and healing going on behind these fences and walls. This is a country that is being forced to confront issues like prevailing gender roles, sexual assault and rape. Because the incidence of HIV/AIDS is so high (almost one in five people is affected), these issues have to be confronted as they are causing the deaths of millions of people.

Between five and seven million South Africans are expected to die from HIV/AIDS by the year 2010. The Rape Crisis Centre in cape Town believes that there is the equivalent of one rape every 23 seconds in South Africa. Faced with the urgency of this situation, South Africa may be forced to become a world leader in confronting the issues of violence towards women and attitudes to sex. The use of violence, the pursuit of multiple sexual partners and the domination of women have traditionally been viewed as being “manly” and health seeking behaviours have been seen as a sign of weakness. Now that these prevailing attitudes are proving to be fatal, the society is being forced to re-evaluate these attitudes and to find new ways of addressing these issues.