Twelve ways to end the rape culture

4. Know your rights: You have rights to your body and the right to change your mind and communicate your choice assertively: No means NO
5. Report acts of sexual violence or threats to law enforcement. Impunity is one of the reasons it continues to fester
6. Hold your friends, co-workers, and others around you accountable for their behavior and interrupt vulgar disrespectful behavior or language that you witness.
7. Reframe sexual violence to be not as “women’s issues,” but as “everyone’s issues.”
8. Never make assumptions – Always ask for consent and know your partner’s boundaries when engaging in sexual activities.
9. Talk with others about sexual violence issues and examples of rape culture that you notice.
10. Speak against media’s objectification of women and their promotion of the rape culture
11. Identify and eliminate “sanitizing language” that removes or absolves the perpetrator from the dialogue by only focusing on the victim.
    • For example, rephrase: “Jubril raped Maryam,” instead of “Maryam was raped by Jubril,”

“Maryam was raped,” means “Maryam is a rape victim.” The focus of your language should be on Jubril as the perpetrator rather than Maryam as the victim

9. Do not trivialize sexual violence or  laugh at jokes that make light of rape and other acts of sexual violence
10. Encourage people, (especially men) in your sphere of influence to proactively stop the rape culture.
11. Encourage survivors to speak out.
12. Hold government and business owners accountable to institute laws and policies that protect vulnerable persons against sexual violence