Cheri Blair criticised over African rape comment

Barrister and women’s rights campaigner Cherie Blair has been criticised for saying “most African ladies’ first sexual experience is rape”, reports the UK Guardian newspaper.

British MP Chi Onwurah, who is chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Africa, is quoted as saying: “Ms Blair should enable African women to speak for themselves instead of usurping their voice and their experience.”

But Ms Blair is quoted in the article as standing by her assertion:
“I said that for the vast majority of young girls – who are often 12-, 13-, 14-year-olds – their first experience of sex was rape.”

“There are studies that back this up, including a WHO report in 2002 that concludes: ‘A growing number of studies, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, indicate that the first sexual experience of girls is often unwanted and forced.’ In one case control study of 544 adolescent girls it noted that ‘when asked about the consequences of refusing sex, 77.9% of the study cases and 72.1% of the controls said they feared being beaten if they refused to have sex.’

“It was not my intent to offend or undermine anyone with my comments, and I would welcome more recent stats that showed these findings are outdated. But the sad truth is that too many young African girls continue to experience sexual assault.”

She was giving a talk about women and leadership at a secondary school in the UK on 20 March, the Guardian adds.

On Twitter others have also accused Ms Blair of re-enforcing stereotypes:

Without denying the unacceptably high incidence of rape amongst us, Cherie Blair's wild and unsubstantiated claim that “most African ladies’ first sexual experience is rape”, is another blatantly racist lie that seeks to stereotype Black people's sexuality.

— Mesh Moeti (@MeshMoeti) March 26, 2019

source bbc