Violence Against Women
Hundreds of women wearing miniskirts have marched through downtown Johannesburg to protest sexual harassment. A handful of men also donned miniskirts in support during Friday’s march organized by the women’s league of the African National Congress. Women especially complain of harassment from the drivers of private vans known as taxis, which serve as the main form of mass transportation in South Africa. In 2008, a 25-year woman wearing a miniskirt was stripped, paraded naked and sexually assaulted by some drivers in Johannesburg. Miniskirt-clad Miwera Gam, a 30-year-old member of the ANC Women’s League, says: “This is a free country. We have a right to wear whatever we want; nobody can stop us.”