A story of violence.

• Author: Fassin, Didier
• Position: Violence against women

Let us call her Magda. The name is invented, but the story is real. She was born in Lesotho 35 years ago. Her life exemplifies the burden of physical, sexual, and psychological violence against women.

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Magda's grandmother, who had been adopted by poor rural workers, had migrated with them from the Orange Free State, which was at that time the heart of the apartheid ideology. Extreme poverty condemned her to return to South Africa to work while leaving her children behind with their grandparents. Magda's mother was only 15 when she gave birth to her daughter. Abandoned by a brutal husband, she followed her own mother's path and crossed the border in search of work. Magda was left to be raised by her grandmother and her uncle who, being the eldest man of the homestead, was considered the head of the family. She liked school but was often prevented from attending because of her domestic obligations, such as fetching wood or cleaning the house. Her uncle was often drunk and sexually abused Magda when she was seven. During the following eight years Magda had to regularly submit to forced sex. She soon understood that she would not receive any support from her grandmother, who, when she told what she was enduring, replied that she could not oppose her son's authority.

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One day, Magda's mother reappeared and, discovering the situation, brought her to the province of Natal, where she had remarried and settled. But, implying that her daughter was the one trying to seduce men, she warned Magda that she would kill her if she ever had sexual relations with her new husband. It did not take long, however, for Magda's stepfather to start abusing her every time her mother was out. These were years of political unrest in the country as the apartheid regime was living its last moments. Magda's stepfather was involved in guerrilla activities, and the adolescent was afraid of him. Magda's mother, although seemingly aware of what was happening, never intervened. After three years, Magda finally escaped and fled to Johannesburg. She was eighteen.

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In the city, her aunt initiated her into what is euphemistically referred to as "transactional sex". They went to a bar and Magda had to choose a man who would become her "boyfriend". In return for sex she would clandestinely spend the night with him in the dormitory of a hotel where he was employed as a cook. During the day she would work in the streets...