In the fight against sexual violence, one woman dared to give power back to the powerless. In 2005, South African medical technician Sonette Ehlers developed a controversial yet groundbreaking device called RAPEX a female-controlled anti-rape tool designed to inflict immediate physical consequences on an attacker and potentially stop a rape attempt in progress.
Worn internally like a tampon, RAPEX is lined with sharp, inward-facing barbs that latch onto the skin of a penetrating attacker. The result? Excruciating pain and injury that require surgical removal in a hospital, forcing the attacker to seek medical attention and increasing the likelihood of arrest. Ehlers, who had spent years working with sexual assault survivors in emergency rooms, was driven by the heartbreak and helplessness she saw in her patients. RAPEX, she said, wasn’t about revenge it was about giving women a fighting chance in their most vulnerable moment.
The invention sparked a global firestorm. Critics questioned its ethics, while supporters hailed it as a radical form of self-defense in a country plagued by one of the world’s highest rates of sexual violence. But regardless of where one stands on the debate, RAPEX ignited an essential conversation about the extremes some women feel forced to go to in order to protect themselves and the urgent need for broader systemic change.
Source: BBC News Archives, South African Medical Innovation Reports, 2005 Gender-Based Violence Briefs.
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