KLEINMOND, South Africa - 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.
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.
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.
Other critics say the condom is medieval and barbaric - an accusation Ehlers says should be directed rather at the act of rape.
Re: Rapists' Nightmare: Anti-rape condom aims to stop sexual assaults
i heard abt this on the radio-i think it sounds pretty cool-i'd use it
they were recomending it for when women go out alone and stuff
basically a woman inserts it like she would a tampon or something, and if a penis that isnt supposed to be there is, it will clamp down on it and like the article said it can only be removed off the penis surgically
Re: Rapists’ Nightmare: Anti-rape condom aims to stop sexual assaults
A client she(Ehlers) was consulting when she was a blood cross-matcher for a transfusion service, remarked one day “if only I had teeth down there”, she related.
And while on call in hospitals and privy to corridor talk, she overheard a surgeon joking about a man who had caught his penis in his trouser zip.
