Early last year, one of Kenya’s leading universities issued an internal memo highlighting cases of robbery and rape involving female students. The memo mentioned that recklessness by the students was to blame for the cases. The vice chancellor later issued an apology, noting that the memo was insensitive and did not represent the institution’s values.
The contents of the memo are a reflection of how our society views rape victims. Whenever people hear that a woman has been raped, they are quick to ask, ‘Where was she?’, ‘What time was it?’ and ‘What was she wearing?’.
Like the contents of the memo, these questions innately ask what the woman did to get raped. They further suggest that if she was not in a certain place, at a certain time and not dressed in a certain way, she would not have been raped.
Through this line of questioning, society turns its attention away from the rapist and their act of violence. The victim is, instead, held responsible for what has happened and given the burden of preventing it from happening in the future.
This ingrained victim blaming makes it hard for those who experience various forms of violence to report for fear of ridicule. It also delays their healing process as they are engulfed with shame and guilt.
Instead of punishing the perpetrators and giving tips to men on how not to rape, many spaces in our society opt to craft messages for women with tips on how to avoid getting raped. By making women the target of these tips, society inherently presumes that when a woman is raped, they asked for it.
As a way to validate its presumptions, society goes through a list of questions to check if the woman followed the laid down rules and did not do anything to provoke the man.
An example of these societal rules was in full display at another public university that opted to give suggestions on how women should dress. The banner, which has since been pulled down, had images of how women should dress, mentioned that one is addressed based on how they dress and that indecent dressing led to sexual harassment and rape.
One could argue that personal presentation skills are things that students looking to get into the job market need alongside technical, interpersonal and critical thinking skills. The message on the banner was, however, less of a workplace etiquette guide and more of a rape culture promotion.
When an institution of higher learning puts out a banner policing how women dress as a measure to prevent gender-based violence, it inherently publicises that it is not a safe place and gives perpetrators a free pass.
By informing women about impending acts of violence in its institution, the university acknowledges that it harbours people who sexually harass and rape. It also acknowledges that instead of prioritising safety by weeding out these rapists, it would rather women follow the laid down rules.
Through these rules, the school makes it hard for students who end up getting harassed or raped to report. The thought of having to go through an interrogation that includes a dress code check would be off-putting for many, if not all, victims. On the flip side, the perpetrators get more of an invitation to prey on those who do not heed the rules.
As the world marks 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, institutions of higher learning should take advantage of the resources offered by Kenyan and international organisations on how to keep their spaces safe.
Following the pulling down of the banner, the institution should educate its students, staff and faculty on why policing how women dress normalises rape culture and promotes victim blaming. It should also embark on an awareness campaign that involves crafting messages that promote safety while emphasising its policies that promote the prosecution of perpetrators.
The institution should also invest in continuous training sessions on various aspects of gender-based violence. What it is, how it is promoted, how to end it and how to create a psychologically safe space for all its students, staff and faculty.
These training sessions are particularly important to prevent the creation, printing and hanging of similar banners in the future. Lessons from the training sessions should then be integrated into the school culture and into the development of future leaders who do not objectify or degrade women and are respectful of each others’ physical and psychological spaces.
Mental health advocate at My Mind My Funk Mental Health Resource Hub, a TED Speaker and a Senior Fellow with Aspen Institute New Voices Fellowship