性犯罪阻止の「コンドーム」開発、南アの女性発明家

性犯罪阻止の「コンドーム」開発、南アの女性発明家
2005.09.01
Web posted at: 21:31 JST
‐REUTERS

南アフリカ・クレインモンド（ロイター）　性的暴行の多発が重大問題になっている南アフリカで、女性発明家のソネット・エーラーズさん（５７）が、女性を守る特殊コンドーム「rapex」を開発、８月３１日にお披露目した。

「rapex」は、生理用タンポンのように膣内に挿入して使うもので、暴行犯の性器に「噛（か）みつく」ような仕掛けが施されている、という。

エーラーズさんは「これまで女性を性的暴行から守るものがなかった」 と指摘し、「rapex」は、暴行者の性器に激痛を与えるため、女性がすきを見付けて逃れることが可能で、性犯罪を減少させ、妊娠やエイズ、性病の感染を防ぐことにもつながるとした。

このコンドームは、病院でしか取り外しができないようになっていることから、犯罪者の特定にも役立つとしている。

南アフリカ政府の犯罪統計によると、同国では毎年５万件以上の性的暴行被害が届けられている。子供や知人の間の暴行は、ほとんどの場合、泣き寝入りとなるため、実際の被害件数は４倍にも膨れ上がるとみられている。

「rapex」の使い心地については、複数の女性がプラスチック製の男性性器の模型でテストしてみたものの、生身の男性での試験はまだだという。来年から生産を予定している。

一方、同国の性犯罪防止団体などは、「rapex」が犯罪者の怒りを加速させ、女性への暴行がさらに増える恐れがある、と批判している。


Anti-rape condom aims to stop attacks
Thu Sep 1, 2005 12:03 PM ET

KLEINMOND, South Africa (Reuters) - 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.

"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.

South Africa has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other country, with one in nine of its 45 million population infected.

Ehlers, who showed off a prototype on Wednesday, said women had tried it for comfort and it had been tested on a plastic male model but not yet on a live man. Production was planned to start next year.

But the "rapex" has raised fears amongst anti-rape activists that it could escalate violence against women.

"If a victim is wearing such a device it may enrage the attacker further and possibly result in more harm being caused," said Sam Waterhouse, advocacy coordinator for Rape Crisis.

Other critics say the condom is medieval and barbaric -- an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape.

"This is not about vengeance ... but the deed, that is what I hate," she said.