As SA observes the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), we must confront a deeply troubling reality: women and girls with disabilities remain among the most vulnerable, yet their plight is often ignored. In rural communities, harmful norms and systemic neglect have normalised abuse, leaving these women unprotected and without access to justice. A 2024/2025 Human Sciences Research Council study, released by the department of women, youth and persons with disabilities, revealed that ever-partnered women with disabilities experienced twice as much lifetime sexual violence (14.6%) compared with women without disabilities (7.2%).
Violence often begins within families, where responsibility for girls with intellectual disabilities is neglected. In some households, ignorance about how to protect these women prevails. Disturbingly, jokes about women and girls with intellectual disabilities are common in taverns.
Even more alarming, predators are often not strangers, they can be family members or neighbours. Regardless of ignorance, rape is a crime; it is an act of cruelty. SA faces a pandemic of GBV against women and girls, and in my view, raping a woman who cannot defend herself is a double crime.
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In many villages, women with intellectual disabilities are treated as outsiders, denied care and left exposed to predators. Sexual harassment and assault occur with alarming frequency, yet perpetrators rarely face consequences. According to research by Callista Kahonde and Rebecca Johns, 2022, minimal studies have explored the perspectives of women and girls with intellectual disabilities regarding the sexual violence they encounter.
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