HONG WAR ON RAPE
Edith Horsfall
The Hong Kong Council of Women together with three other organizations, the Samaritan Befrienders, the Family Planning Association and the Kwun Tong Community Mental Health Project have been coordinating a War on Rape Campaign in Hong Kong. This report was sent by Edith Horsfall of the Hong Kong Council of Women.
Women learn to fear rape at an early age, and this fear follows us all our lives. Safety considerations often affect our choice of job, transportation, clothing styles and living arrangements. Every time a woman says to herself, "Perhaps I shouldn't do that, it might not be safe", she is assessing the risk of rape. Thus the effects of rape are greater than the effects on victims of actual assaults. Living with fear, being constantly watchful, and restricting our lives over a long period of time, damage all women. In this way we are all victims.
To provide accurate information about rape, women have begun to redefine rape in terms of their own experience. This redefinition of rape, based on women's experience of it rather than legal statutes and cultural myths, forms the basis for realistic rape prevention strategies. The three essential points which the feminist analysis of rape stresses are:
1. Rape is an act of power and control.
2. Rape can happen to all women.
3. Rape is violent not sexual.
The vulnerability of women does not depend solely on actual
or culturally determined 'weakness', but on women's dependence on men:
- for political representation
- for economic support
- for social position
- for physical protection
- for psychological approval
Women can pressure the community to respond to rape
victims with care and sensitivity; to ensure that the criminal justice system operates optimally, though imprisonment removing some offenders from the community does not appear to act as deterrent or preventive measure; and to make rape a public issue — to remove the stigma from victims, define the extent of the problem, and demand that rape prevention become a high priority for community agencies.
We should ensure the recognition of rape as a woman's political issue. Unless our society undergoes a fundamental change.
in the relationship between men and women, rape will be
perpetuated. Safety measures only re-enforce women's helplessness.
We must strive for prevention measures that do not
further restrict our lives, and not trade our freedom for security.
War On Rape Campaign 1978
LEGAL:
On 31st March 1978 the Government gazetted the Crimes (Amendment) (No 2) Ordinance which safeguards the anonymity of rape victims and provides that the victim's previous sexual history may not be adduced in evidence except in very special circumstances.The implications of this change in the law for rape victims were explained on a Chinese TV Programme by Maria Tam. We have publicly denounced the less responsible sections of the press who have managed to circumvent the law and still publish details by which victims can be identified. We have also written to the Attorney General on this point. By monitoring the press and more recently by arranging for women to sit in on rape trials in court and critically report on procedures, we are constantly on the alert for flaws in criminal justice concerning rape. Stiffer sentences for sexual offenders, composition of juries which should include women jurors, in rape trials, and the validity of self-defense for women attacked by rapists have been our
active concern, voiced in the media and to authorities. We plan to pressure changes in the law as regards corroborative evidence in rape trials: we feel rape victims should not be put in the same category as accomplices, children and mentally retarded and the issue should rest on the victim's CONSENT.
MEDICAL:
The Family Planning Association "Help Rape Victims" service is now well known and widely publicised. Well over 100 rape victims have been helped and given aftercare. Compensation for victims has on occasion been obtained by referral to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. The Medical Sub-Committee of War on Rape has drawn up a protocol for Casualty Officers who deal with victims of alleged sexual assault (those not seen by the forensic pathologist). We have also critically analysed the textbook used to teach medical students about sexual assault; sexist attitudes and no mention of the rape trauma syndrome and care in handling victims engenders a wrong approach. The senior forensic pathologist who teaches students and liaises with Medical and Health Department has been consulted about this and has shown sympathetic cooperation.
LIAISON:
We were consulted by the Police Public Relations Unit to advise on the Report Rape Campaign in Tsuen Waan Oct/ Nov. We supplied material for their news sheets (100,000) and were invited to participate in the press conference which had very good media coverage. The Rape Counselors Manual has been distributed to all police stations. War On Rape also participated in the Kwun Tong Fight Crime Campaign in July. We have been writing to and seeing legal aid, attorney general, prisons, forensic pathologist, housing department and urban services department. The posters and pamphlets advertising the hotline for rape victims and the FPA service have been
widely distributed throughout the colony. Every registered doctor (2600) has been informed, with special emphasis on Estate doctors. The Federation of Youth Groups and YWCA have attended our meetings.
RESEARCH:
The pattern of rape in Hong Kong and the "profile" of victims has been clarified from monitoring the press and data gathered from victims who approach the FPA. This is helpful for preventive campaigns, but until we have a clearer "profile" of the rapist and his motivation, further progress in the War on Rape is difficult to achieve. Public attitudes must be changed to regard the rapist's crime as one not primarily sexual, but of a violent nature. We need research students, access to convicted rapists and their files and funds. We have been in touch with research workers in London, Cambridge and San Francisco. We subscribe to FAAR (Feminist Alliance Against Rape).
TRAINING:
Two comprehensive training sessions for volunteers (in Cantonese) were very successfully held in June and January (1979). The intensive weekend courses were first conducted at FPA Headquarters, then at Morrision Hall as a camp. Funds were generously donated by the HK Council of Women. Several of the volunteers are in service professions, but all have benefited by correct information and enlightened attitudes towards rape, which will benefit the community. Their services are used in exhibitions, by the Samaritans and preparing the Manual for distribution. The Family Planning Association is giving orientation courses to women Police Community Relations Officers, who will lecture to schools.
WAR ON RAPE T-SHIRTS:
Bearing a pair of helping hands supporting the feminist symbol, these shirts have been sold wherever possible (including at Star Ferry) as a fund raising measure
HOMANTIN CENTRE:
The Samaritans have made a room in this centre at 48 Princess Margaret Road available to us. All records, literature, manuals and display material are now in one place; the centre is "open" on Thursday mornings for routine work, discussions and interviews with visitors and the media. Our monthly meetings are held there. It is a small beginning for our dream of a Women's Crisis Centre. Rape Counselor's Manual: 500 copies in both languages have been printed and widely distributed to government, voluntary agencies and interested Individuals. Every police station has a copy.
PUBLICITY:
Our main target is still to keep the problem of rape in the public eye and to raise the consciousness of the community. This has been greatly facilitated by the interest shown by the media. In the press there have been feature articles, editorials, letters to the editor and an apparent increase in reports of rape trials with striking captions. The FPA held a press conference at the end of their first year of helping rape victims. The T-shirt sale was given good cover. Television has several "spots" aimed at rape reporting and safety. A Chinese programme "Common Sense" and a Police Call programme were devoted to rape. Open Line, Commercial Radio, Insight, BBC Documentary "Hello Tomorrow" have all dealt with various aspects of rape in Hong Kong. We have approached the Carr Foundation for their sponsorship of broadcast time. Our coordinators and publicity contacts are often consulted on various related problems, including child abuse and abortion. We aim to continue to remain in the public consciousness and eventually win the war on rape.