Unburdened freedom

Unburdened Freedom

I am a third-year Education student and the University of Pretoria. I am double majoring in Art Education and English. This year in Art we were tasked to make a year-long project where we make art about something that is happening in our lives. As a young woman living in South Africa, it is almost impossible to miss the crimes against women that occur in our country every day. 

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Interpol has named South Africa the rape capital of the world. In South Africa rape cases climbed by 1.7% during the past year. While the increase appears nominal, this equates to 42,289 reported cases. This project will attempt to bring awareness to this very real problem in our society today. It will bring awareness to rape crimes in our country as well as gender-based violence. 

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The mission of my project is to bring Equality, Justice and Forgiveness. Equality in the sense that a woman can walk down the street or go to a public place, or be a part of a household, without fear of being raped, no matter what they are wearing. Justice for women who have been victims and survivors of rape and gender-based violence in South Africa. And finally forgiveness, for the women, children, men, non-binary, transgender people, who have been affected by these crimes. 

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Because this project needs to have a personal connection to me, I have chosen to revolve my year project around Rape and Gender-based violence against women in South Africa. I know that rape and sexual violence happen to all people, but because I am a woman and the project is based on my view, I have decided to base it around women. I also want to emphasize that this is about empowering women to be unafraid regardless of what they chose to wear on any given day. This is why I want to be specific in the way that it focuses on discouraging victim-blaming and the repossession of the female body.

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