Remember the men in the fight against gender-based violence‚ say activists

University of KwaZulu-Natal students have called for more male inclusion in the fight against gender-based violence.

Speaking at a 365 days of activism against gender-based violence public lecture at UKZN on Thursday‚ Yamkela Dube‚ a gender studies student‚ said: “In most cases we have excluded males when you talk about gender-based violence. Recently there was a march at Curries Fountain and men weren't allowed to join.”

Dube was referring to the #TotalShutdown women’s march which took place across the country at the beginning of August to highlight gender-based violence. The march did not allow men to participate.

“[Excluding men from such events] draws an image that men cannot be victims of gender-based violence‚” said Dube.

The public lecture was hosted by the institution’s corporate relations division in conjunction with the Advice Desk for the Abused at Howard College on Thursday.

The Advice Desk for the Abused is a non-profit organisation that has been dealing with domestic violence since 1985 and has to date handled over 300‚000 cases of domestic violence. During her address‚ National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) senior advocate Omashani Naidoo said that society needed to stop treating the boy child as if they could not be victims of gender-based violence.

“’Just because I am a male it doesn't mean she can’t hurt me’‚ we grow up teaching our children because‚ our boys don't cry‚” said Naidoo‚ who is a senior advocate in the NPA’s Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit.

Naidoo also spoke on how progressive South Africa’s laws are in dealing with gender-based violence.

She said South Africa’s sexual offences laws were among the best in the world.

Other addresses during the lecture were from Dr Gabi Mkhize and Dr Lubna Nadvi‚ both of whom are academics and researchers at the institution’s School of Social Sciences.