Brigitte Weidlich
2 July 2009
CONVICTED rapists should be castrated, some Members of Parliament demanded yesterday when debating a motion on gender-based violence, but one Member demanded that abusive women should also be "castrated".
DTA Vice President Philemon Moongo said women who are sexually violent towards men "must also be castrated", but did not say how this could be done.
Moongo's remark sent chuckles through the House while CoD Member Nora-Schimming-Chase said castration for male rapists could be the answer.
"In some countries, rapists are given the choice of either castration or a long prison sentence. Those who choose castration get minimum sentences and return to society minus their 'gun' (penis), which before had been their dangerous weapon," Schimming-Chase said.
The MP got irritated with some male MPs who made flippant interjections, while Trade and Industry Minister Hage Geingob said he was worried about the future, should the "mothers of the country" rule one day.
Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila supported the CoD MP on the castration issue.
Prime Minister Nahas Angula asked Schimming-Chase whether she knew how many married women would support castration.
She said an alternative to castration could be to put hydrochloric acid "drop for drop" on a perpetrator's genitals.
From the murmurs and shrieks coming for the male Members, it could be deducted that they would probably not support the acid action.
On a more serious note, DTA President Katuutire Kaura said he wondered what could prompt a man to rape a baby just a few months old, as has happened several times in Namibia.
"Such a man would qualify for castration," Kaura said.
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