A female condom-like device that latches on to a rapist's penis with fish-tooth-like hooks is stirring controversy in South Africa recently, where the incidence of sexual assault is high.

Called "Rapex," the latex device inserted in the vagina is the brainchild of South African Sonet Ehlers, who has been thinking about an anti-rape device since 1969, when she met a young rape victim.

"If you have seen a woman that has been raped, she is alive yet she is dead," Ehlers said from her home in Kleinmond, a holiday town some 120 kilometres east of Cape Town.

"My biggest drive is to help the woman out," says Ehlers, 57, a mother of two daughters.

Rapex attaches itself to the shaft of the penis and can only be removed by a surgeon, forcing a rapist to go to a hospital, where the crime would presumably be uncovered.

"He has got to turn himself in at the nearest hospital and then the police will catch him," said Ehlers, who added that the device does not cause any permanent injury to the man's penis.

Ehlers said the rape trap would be so painful for a rapist that it would disable him immediately; but would cause no long-term physical damage and could not injure the woman.

"This is not a tool to punish men, but a device to empower women," she said.

Ehlers hopes to put her device which can be kept inside the vagina for up to 24 hours on sale in South Africa next year at the cost of a rand (16 US cents).

But organizations such as Rape Crisis Cape Town say Rapex is not the solution to South Africa's sexual assault problem, with more than 52,000 rapes reported per year.

"We are going back to the 15th century. It's not empowering women, it increases their vulnerability to violence and murder," Rape Crisis director Chantel Cooper said.

"It's not progressive at all, this is like a chastity belt. We need to understand that the safety of women is not an individual responsibility, but a societal issue," said Cooper.

But Ehlers contends that South Africa's rape problem is so severe women cannot wait for male attitudes to improve.

"I don't hate men. I love men. I have not got revenge in mind. All I am doing is giving women their power back," Ehlers said. "I don't even hate rapists. But I hate the deed with a passion."

About 40 per cent of rape victims in South Africa are under the age of 18.

The National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation estimates that only one in 20 rapes are reported to police.

Ehlers believes that women who travel long distances to get to their place of work, often in the early hours of the morning, would feel "safe" from rapists when wearing Rapex.

The device also protects women against sexually transmitted disease including AIDS and unwanted pregnancy.

"Our women who catch taxis, buses, trains, walk to work, your middle class women, your poor women, it is well accepted among them," said Ehlers.

She said a majority of women surveyed said they were willing to use the device.

The United Nations says South Africa has the world's highest per capita rate of reported rapes 119 per 100,000 people. Analysts say the total, including unreported rapes, could be nine times higher.

(China Daily 09/14/2005 page7)