South Africa 'feels like a prison' for women amid spate of femicides

South Africa has some of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, and a spate of killings of nine women in the same area in recent weeks has led to renewed outrage.

<img src='https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/8640x5760+0+0/resize/8640x5760!/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F4a%2Fc2%2Fde953e2c411698438f5300c50217%2Fap26260581564231.jpg' alt='Members of a women's church group sing next to a melted candle as they pay their respects at the site where the body of a woman was discovered the previous week, in Kempton Park, South Africa, east of Johannesburg, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.'/><p>South Africa has some of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, and a spate of killings of nine women in the same area in recent weeks has led to renewed outrage.</p><p>(Image credit: Themba Hadebe)</p><img src='https://media.npr.org/include/images/tracking/npr-rss-pixel.png?story=nx-s1-5973822' />