South African women fall victim to 'corrective rape'

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

 Eudy Simelane (Right)

Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbians in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterised by what they call "corrective rape" committed by men behind the guise of trying to "cure" lesbians of their sexual orientation.

Watch Video - Interviews with South African victims of 'corrective rape

Women protest against 'rape' in Northeast India

Naked women protestors shout slogans against the alleged rape, torture and murder of 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama Devi by paramilitary soldiers in Imphal, capital of northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Thursday, July 15, 2004. In a highly unusual protest, some 40 women stripped naked and staged an angry demonstration outside the Assam Rifles base to protest the death in custody of 32-year old Manorama.

The death triggered a violent campaign against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act act, (AFSPA) forcing the Manmohan Singh government to constitute the Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy Commission, which recommended repeal of the act as did the Administrative Reforms Commission. But the government is yet to act on them.