My comment
Many Women in Africa have been raped by men and unfortunately they fail to pin their victims in courts of law. Many female rape victims fear to take their abusers to court because of the incredible harassment they are subjected to during an adversarial court processes . For example there are scenarios where a rape victim is asked; Did you enjoy? Why did you put on a short shirt if you did not want to be raped etc. Can you imagine!!!! Therefore prosecuting male rape cases under a patriarchal African legal system is almost impossible.
For a couple of months now, men in Zimbabwe have been terrorized by reports of Sperm-hunting women rapists. A number of women were arrested in connection with these reports and have been prosecuted in court but unfortunately they have gotten away with it. How can you prove female rape under a patriarchal African legal system???
Sperm-hunting women prowl Zimbabwe highways
http://www.ntn24.com/news/news/sperm-hunting-women-prowl-zimb-11773
Susan Dhliwayo was stunned when she pulled her car over recently to pick up a group of male hitchhikers and they refused to get in. The reason? They feared being raped.
Sensational reports of gangs of beautiful women picking up
male travellers to have sex and harvest their sperm in condoms have gripped Zimbabwe in a
dizzying mix of taboos, rituals and the downright bizarre.
"Now, men fear women. They said: 'we can't go with you
because we don't trust you'," 19-year-old Dhliwayo recounted.
Local media have reported victims of the highway prowlers
being drugged, subdued at gun or knife point -- even with a live snake in one
case -- given a sexual stimulant and forced into repeated sex before being
dumped on the roadside.
The sperm hunters first surfaced in the local press in 2009
but police have only arrested three women, found with a plastic bag of 31 used
condoms in October. The attacks have continued since they were nabbed for
allegedly violating 17 men.
"We do not have the exact number of confirmed
cases," said national police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena.
"These cases occurred mostly when the victims were
hitchhiking and boarded private vehicles. We encourage people to use public
transport."
The sperm's exact use is not clear but is thought to be
intended for "juju" or traditional rituals to bring luck -- anything
from enhancing good fortune, boosting business or preventing a criminal from
being detected.
It is also not known why the semen is taken forcibly from
strangers.
"It's really an issue which is mind boggling,"
said University
of Zimbabwe sociologist
Watch Ruparanganda, who believes it is a lucrative business. "It's quite a
big mystery. Obviously we know (it is) being used for rituals."
Ruparanganda said he was astonished to discover seven years
ago that semen appeared to have become a tradable commodity, while doing
research for his doctoral thesis among Harare street youth who told him that
businessmen would take them to hotels, give them new clothes and ply them with
booze.
They were then told to pick a prostitute and to hand over
the used condom after sex.
'Really frightened people'
"It just shows there's some big racket somewhere, some
big guys driving everything, but they are in the background and using these
ladies," said Ruparanganda.
The headline-grabbing reports have not shocked Tende Marahu,
24, who tells of men and "sugar mamas" picking up young men from the
streets in his neighbourhood to collect their sperm secured in a knotted condom
after sex.
"It started a long time back," Marahu said, adding
he had not yet partaken but would happily do so for the money. "To me, I
didn't get shocked because I already knew it was happening."
The reports are not unique to Zimbabwe, with Nigerian media last
year reporting prostitutes collecting sperm-filled condoms to sell.
The Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association slams
the practice.
"We believe that this is a form of witchcraft. So we
are totally against the idea," said spokesman George Kandiyero.
"It has really frightened people," he said.
"It has really brought in a bit of shock because normally it was the other
way round, normally we know of men raping women, not women raping men."
Kandiyero suggested that one reason why the harvesters don't
solicit sperm from their loved ones is the belief that sperm used in
"jujus" could bring on trouble for the man.
"That is the problem with some of these 'jujus' that
are used to make money, most of them have negative side effects," he said.
A Zimbabwean women's rights group has criticised the
spotlight shifting to male rape victims, and paid for a newspaper advert to
deplore that violence against women in the country is not met with the same
degree of shock.
The three women linked to the case, meanwhile, have stirred
much attention and public anger. Audiences pack into the dreary courtrooms each
time they appear in the dock, and one of their lawyers said they have received
death threats.
No law in Zimbabwe
criminalises rape by women so the trio, arrested with one man, face 17 counts
of aggravated indecent assault, though no trial date has as yet been set.
Dumisani Mthombeni, a lawyer for two of the women and the
man, complained that five months after their arrest, prosecutors have yet to produce
DNA test results, a charge sheet or witness statements but nonetheless have
"paraded (the women) on national television as female rapists".
"We have not been given anything -- nothing,"
Mthombeni said. "We believe they don't want us to go to trial because they
arrested the wrong people."
The case has triggered a mix of shock, intrigue and humour
-- such as one newspaper cartoon showing a nude hitchhiker hoping to be picked
up by a female driver -- but also fear among some men.
"Of course we are scared," said a 26-year-old
hitchhiker on a highway south of Harare,
adding he would not get into a car driven by a woman.
"Even if she's old, we can't."
Published on March 22, 2012
Authored by: Alejandro Bustos / AFP
Men fear women in Zimbabwe after spate of rapes to harvest their sperm
Gangs of beautiful women in Zimbabwe have been picking up male hitchhikers to have sexual intercourse and harvest their sperm for use in traditional luck-enhancing 'juju' rituals, according to local media reports.
Local woman, Susan Dhliwayo, claims she pulled her car over recently to pick up a group of male hitchhikers and they refused to get in, because they feared they were going to be raped.
'Now, men fear women. They said: 'We can't go with you because we don't trust you',' Ms Dhliwayo, 19, said.
According to reports, victims of the freeway femme fatales are drugged or subdued at gun or knife-point - one man was even forced to perform at 'snake-point' when his rapists brandished a live snake.
The male victims are then given a sexual stimulant and forced to have sex repeatedly, sometimes unprotected, before being dumped on the side of the road.
In November, three sisters and one of their boyfriends were charged in a Harare court for attacking male hitchhikers and harvesting their semen for rituals.
The Nhokwara sisters were caught when they were involved in a car accident and police found 31 used condoms in the boot of their car.
The women face 17 counts of aggravated indecent assault, as a woman raping a man is not a criminal offense in the country. The three sisters have claimed that they were merely hard-working prostitutes.
'Obviously we know (it is) being used for rituals,' said University of Zimbabwe sociologist Watch Ruparanganda, who believes semen has become a lucrative commodity in Zimbabwe.
Dr Ruparanganda said street youth in Harare have reported being given a hotel room and booze by businessmen, told to pick up a prostitute and then to hand over the used condom.
The Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association have criticised the practice, saying they believe 'this is a form of witchcraft'.
'We are totally against the idea,' said spokesman George Kandiyero.
The attacks have not abated since the arrest of the Nhokwara sisters, and police admit they've lost count.
'We do not have the exact number of confirmed cases,' said national police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena.
Mr Bvudzijena also encouraged young Zimbabwean men to 'use public transport' to avoid being targeted by sperm-hunters.
Women Gangs Raping Men, Using Semen For Rituals
Bizzare reports coming from Zimbabwe
indicate that gangs of women are raping men and taking off with their semen in
used condoms. The Kenyan Daily Post reports
that several men have written statements with the police about incidents where
they were raped by a woman at gun point.
The way it went down was that they would be offered a lift
by these attractive women (usually 2) who would then drive them to some lonely
spot at gun point, hand them a condom and order them to have sex with one of
them. At the end of the ordeal the women would carefully retrieve the condom
and drive off into the night with the raped man’s semen.
This is the kind of tale that would never sell as fiction
because it sounds way too bizarre to be true. But it gets even stranger. Late
last year a motorist has a minor accident but when police arrive on the scene
it suddenly turns into a criminal investigation after they find 31 used condoms
in the car, 4 of them still with what appears to be male semen. The man leads
police to three women (in the picture above) who are said to be the owners of
the car involved in the accident. They are; Rosemary Chakwizira (24), Sophie
Nhokwara (26) and Netsai Nhokwara (24). Police seem to have enough evidence
because the women are promptly charged.
Superstitious locals believe that the motive of the rapes is
to collect male sperm for occult rituals that lead to great wealth. The
lifestyle of the 3 arrested women and the fact that several men have come
forward to tell police that they were popular in night spots in Harare where
they were known to frequently insist on buying men drinks, has just added fuel
to this belief.
In Russia
a lone woman rapist has been charged in court where she admitted to raping a
man for 3 days. So severe were the man’s wounds from the rape ordeal that he
was forced to seek treatment in a hospital shortly after the woman released
him.
Women raping men – no joke!
Sunday,
June 24, 2012 - If you think
this is a joke then think again because in two recent cases raped men have had
to seek treatment after their ordeal with some women and in one case after an
encounter with a single woman.
One thing is for sure, whatever statistics you see abut
females raping men will always be greatly understated. For the simple reason
that this is not the kind of crime that a man would usually report. It is the
kind of thing that they will want to keep a big secret and that also makes any
research into the matter a little more difficult than usual.
Take the case of this story one of my informants at the Coast
has been pursuing for a number of weeks now. It has been reported that a gang
of women in a certain part of Mombasa
(location with-held) are grabbing men and raping them. Some locals think that
the motive may be to spread disease as a way of exerting some kind of revenge
against men in general. Those who are said to have been involved will not talk
about it let alone agree to meet a reporter who may publicize their story.
But it seems men in Zimbabwe are different. That
country has been hitting international headlines since late last year and this
time it has nothing to do with the hyper inflation that has been rampant in
that country for a long time. Several men have written statements with the
police about incidents where they were raped by a woman at gun point.
The way it went down was that they would be offered a lift by
these attractive women (usually 2) who would then drive them to some lonely
spot at gun point, hand them a condom and order them to have sex with one of
them. At the end of the ordeal the women would carefully retrieve the condom
and drive off into the night with the raped man’s semen.
This is the kind of tale that would never sell as fiction
because it sounds way too bizarre to be true. But it gets even stranger. Late
last year a motorist has a minor accident but when police arrive on the scene
it suddenly turns into a criminal investigation after they find 31 used condoms
in the car, 4 of them still with what appears to be male semen. The man leads
police to three women (in the picture above) who are said to be the owners of
the car involved in the accident. They are; Rosemary Chakwizira (24), Sophie
Nhokwara (26) and Netsai Nhokwara (24). Police seem to have enough evidence
because the women are promptly charged.
Superstitious locals believe that the motive of the rapes is
to collect male sperm for occult rituals that lead to great wealth. The
lifestyle of the 3 arrested women and the fact that several men have come
forward to tell police that they were popular in night spots in Harare where
they were known to frequently insist on buying men drinks, has just added fuel
to this belief.
In Russia
a lone woman rapist has been charged in court where she admitted to raping a
man for 3 days. So severe were the man’s wounds from the rape ordeal that he
was forced to seek treatment in a hospital shortly after the woman released
him.
Joke about female rapists at your own peril and maybe it
might not be such a good idea to accept a lift from some beauties in a car who
seem to fancy you. You have been warned.
Zimbabwe: Highway Female Rape Cases - Trio in Court
http://allafrica.com/stories/201110150113.html
14 October 2011Highway female rape cases: Trio in court
The Herald, Saturday, 15 October 2011 00:00
Innocent Ruwende Senior Court Reporter
THREE women accused of committing a spate of sex attacks on male hitchhikers in search of semen appeared in court yesterday facing aggravated indecent assault charges.
Sisters Sophie (26) and Netsai Nhokwara (24) and Rosemary Chakwizira (28) are the first suspects to be arrested in connection with sex attacks on men since such cases were first reported two years ago.
They were jointly charged with Thulani Ngwenya (24).
Their 17 victims identified so far include a soldier and a policeman whom they allegedly abused without using condoms.
The four were not formally charged with 17 counts of aggravated indecent assault when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Kudakwashe Jarabini.
The suspects stood in the dock wearing long faces as the prosecutor read the charges to them for almost an hour.
After the charges were put to the suspects, Mr Jarabini remanded them in custody to October 28.
They were advised to apply for bail at the High Court.
On the first count, it is alleged that on March 3 this year at around 7:50am, the four, who were driving a Toyota Spacio without registration numbers, picked a 19-year-old man in Budiriro, Harare.
The teenager was on his way to town. Along the way, the State says they sprayed him with chemicals and he felt dizzy.
It is alleged they diverted the route and drove into a bushy area along Mukuvisi River behind Houghton Park where they forced him to drink a concoction, which stimulates sexual desire.
They then allegedly forced the teenager to be intimate with the three of them using condoms.
After this, they secured the used condoms containing semen before spraying him with the same substance and leaving him unconscious.
When he woke up, the teenager reported the matter to police.
On August 22, the four allegedly picked up a soldier in Norton while driving a Toyota Raum.
The soldier, who was not in uniform, was taken into a dust road near Porta Farm.
One of them, it is alleged, produced a pistol and threatened to shoot him if he refused to have unprotected sex with them.
They dumped him in the bushy area and sped off.
On September 14 at about 5:20pm, the four who were driving a Mitsubishi Chariot along Chitambo Street in Chinhoyi approached a police Constable who was not in uniform.
They allegedly asked him for directions before bundling him into their vehicle after spraying him with an unknown substance.
They allegedly forced him to have unprotected sex with them before pushing him out of the vehicle and speeding off.
The policeman reported the matter at Chamagamba Police Station.
It is alleged that using different cars, the gang terrorised 14 other men using the same
tactics.
Mr Michael Reza, assisted by Mr Moffat Makuvatsine, appeared for the State.
Female 'rapists' charged with 17 counts
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-6272-Female+rapists+charged+with+17+counts/news.aspx
by Staff Reporter
14/10/2011 00:00:00
POLICE in Zimbabwe investigating dozens of sex attacks on MALE hitchhikers have charged three WOMEN and a man.
Rosemary Chakwizira, 24, Sophie Nhokwara, 26, and Netsai Nhokwara, 24, appeared in court late Friday charged with SEVENTEEN counts of aggravated indecent assault after their alleged victims picked them out at an identity parade in the capital, Harare.
They are charged along with Thulani Ngwenya, 24, who is Sophie Nhokwara's boyfriend.
The women, all from the Midlands town of Gweru, were arrested on Sunday after trying to retrieve 31 used condoms at an accident scene -- three of them half full with semen.
Ngwenya had been driving a vehicle owned by his girlfriend when he ran over and killed a pedestrian, prosecutors say. Police examining the vehicle following the accident -- a red Chevrolet Aveo -- were approached by the three women with a suspicious request to pick up some condoms.
They were immediately arrested by detectives already on high alert for what investigators have dubbed the "highway rapists".
On the first count, it is alleged that on March 3 this year at around 7:50AM, the four, who were driving a Toyota Spacio without number plates, picked up a 19-year-old man in Budiriro, Harare. He thought he was hitching a lift into town.
Prosecuting, Michael Reza told Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini that the man was sprayed with chemicals and he felt dizzy.
He was driven into the woods along Mukuvisi River behind Houghton Park where they forced him to drink a concoction which stimulates sexual desire.
They then allegedly forced the teenager to be intimate with the three women using condoms which were then secured with the semen inside.
Posecutors say the man was again sprayed with the same substance and left unconscious. He raised the alarm on waking up.
On August 22, say prosecutors, the four picked up a soldier in Norton while driving a Toyota Raum.
The trooper, who was not in uniform, was taken to a secluded
place near Porta Farm where at gun-point he was forced into having sex with the
women.
On September 14 at about 5:20PM, the four, who were driving
in a Mitsubishi Chariot along Chitambo
Street in Chinhoyi, allegedly approached a police
constable who was not in uniform.
Zimbabwe women cleared of ritual rapes
http://www.rnw.nl/africa/bulletin/zimbabwe-women-cleared-ritual-rapes-0
Published on 3 May 2012
- 11:54am
Prosecutors have dropped charges against three
Zimbabwean women accused of raping male hitch-hikers to collect semen for
rituals, after DNA evidence exonerated them, their lawyer said Thursday.
"The police arrested the wrong people. We have always been saying that and the prosecution was buying time to delay the trial because they knew they lacked any evidence."
Sophie and Netsai Nhokwara, sisters aged 26 and 24, and Rosemary Chakwizira, 28, were arrested in October after police found 31 used condoms in the boot of their car amid a string of forced sexual assaults on men that were first reported three years ago.
The three women were charged along with Thulani Ngwenya, a boyfriend of one of them.
The women were accused of forcing themselves on 17 men. They were arrested after they were involved in a car accident, when police found the used condoms.
The results of DNA exams on the women and the alleged victims exonerated the women, the lawyer said.
Mthombeni said the state has decided to prosecute Netsai Nkokwara and Chakwizira on a lesser charge of "loitering for the purposes of prostitution", punishable by a fine.
Reports of women rapists have persisted across Zimbabwe, even after the arrests of the three women.
State media in January reported two separate incidents of men being forced by two women at gun- and knife-point to have sex.
Mthombeni said his clients are planning to sue the police for "unlawful" arrests and the parading of the women on national television as "female rapists."
Woman accused of 'sperm-napping' from innocent men for black magic rituals
- Accused women claim to be ordinary hard-working prostitutes
- Alarming trend sees male hitchhikers drugged, sexually assaulted and dumped by roadsides
UPDATED:
Sophie Nhokwara, 26, her sister Netsai, 24, and Rosemary Chakwizira, 28, appeared in court in Harare, Zimbabwe, facing charges of aggravated indecent assault.
Along with Thulani Ngwenya, 24, thought to be the boyfriend of one of the women, they are accused of operating a sperm harvesting ring preying on hitch-hikers.
They have been charged in connection with three incidents, but many more victims have come forward to police probing a spate of kidnappings and sex attacks.
Reports in Zimbabwe have described the alarming trend of male hitchhikers being offered lifts, but then being drugged and driven to secluded spots by female attackers.
The men are then forced into sex with the women, sometimes unprotected and at gunpoint, before the female rapists collect their semen and dump victims by the roadside.
The women have denied the allegations, claiming they are just ordinary hard-working prostitutes, according to Zimbabwe's Nehanda Radio.
The 17 alleged victims identified so far include a soldier and a policeman who both endured sexual abuse without condoms.
The suspects appeared in front of Harare magistrate Mr Kudakwashe Jarabini for almost an hour on Friday to hear three charges read out to them.
It is alleged that on March 3 this year the four picked up a 19-year-old man in Budiriro, Harare, as he was on his way into town.
Arrested: Zimbabwe
media reports have identified Sophie Nhokwara, 26, as one of the three women
accused of carrying out the sexual assaults
Along the way, according to the charges, the crew allegedly sprayed the
teenager with chemicals that made him feel dizzy before driving him to an area
of bush.There, the youngster was forced to drink a potion stimulating sexual desire and was forced to have sex with all three of the women using condoms.
According to the second charge, the four are alleged to have picked up a soldier who was not in uniform in Norton on August 22 before taken him to a secluded dust road.
Prosecutors claim that one of them produced a pistol and threatened to shoot the man is he refused to have unprotected sex with them.
The third charge alleges that on September 14 the four approached a police constable who was not in uniform in Chinhoyi to ask him for directions.
Bundling the officer into the car, they are alleged to have sprayed him with an unknown substance before forcing him to have unprotected sex with them before dumping him from the vehicle.
It is also alleged that using different cars, the gang targeted 14 other men with similar tactics.
They were arrested after detectives in Gweru, seized 33 used condoms from a suspect vehicle following reports of attacks on men seeking lifts in the town.
Midlands police chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Charles Makono said the women came under suspicion after asking officers if they could retrieve the bag of condoms from their car, which had just been involved in an accident.
Chakwizira, and both Nhokwaras, all from Mkoba 4, Gweru, were immediately arrested along with the male driver on suspicion of multiple counts of indecent assault.
The driver also faces culpable homicide charges after the fatal accident in which a pedestrian was run over and killed.
Nehanda Radio had earlier reported that the local police station in Gweru was beseiged by an angry mob who wanted to see the arrested trio.
One local resident in Gweru outside the police station last week said the three women were known in the town and regularly attended nightclubs there.
Harry Mohammed Misi told the station: 'We are shocked with what is happening in our society where men are now being sexually-abused by women. It seems now that tables have turned.'
'But how can they make a living through such acts? On this case, let the law take its course.
'We used to drink with them at Uptown Nite Club and we didn’t know that they were behind such cases.'
Police are asking for victims to come forward to an identity parade to help identify their attackers.
Investigators also hope to match the semen to some of the victims through DNA testing.
In October last year, police chief Augustine Chihuri was forced to address the female sex attack crimewave, warning that rapists would be 'professionally dealt with accordingly without fear or favour'.
