South African women call purple protest over gender violence

BBC:

South African women’s rights groups are calling for nationwide protests to demand that gender-based violence (GBV) be declared a national disaster in a country where attacks on women have become commonplace.

The campaign began with a viral social media movement and will culminate in a nationwide “shutdown” on Friday, ahead of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

Celebrities, citizens and nations have shown their solidarity by changing their social media profile pictures to purple – a colour often linked to GBV awareness.

South Africa experiences some of the world’s highest levels of GBV, with the rate at which women are killed five times higher than the global average, according to UN Women.

Between January and March this year, 137 women were murdered and more than 1,000 raped, according to South African crime statistics.