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S. Africa anti-rape condom to stop attacks
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-02 07:00
KLEINMOND, South Africa - A South African inventor unveiled a new anti-rape
female condom on Wednesday that hooks onto an attacker's penis and aims to cut
one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world.
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| South African inventor Sonette Ehlers demonstrates her new
anti-rape female condom in Cape Town, South Africa August 31, 2005.
[Reuters] | "Nothing has ever been done to help a
woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time," Sonette
Ehlers, 57, said of the "rapex", a device worn like a tampon that has sparked
controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.
Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while
experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of
acquaintances or children are never reported.
Ehlers said the "rapex" hooks onto the rapist's skin, allowing the victim
time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.
"He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage," she told reporters in
Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100km (60 miles) east of Cape Town. "I
promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital."
The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be
removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and
ultimately, the police, she said.
It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS
and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same
way as a female condom.
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