“If Kim Kardashian cannot escape this, then what chance do normal women have?
“What we’re seeing is one of the most powerful, one of the richest women in the world unable to get her ex to stop texting her, to stop chasing after her, to stop harassing her.
“The point is Kim Kardashian and countless other women, they find themselves in a terrible position.”
That has been SA-born The Daily Show host Trevor Noah’s take on the drama we have been seeing play out for a long time now between the reality TV star and her ex, Kanye West, after the two split.
And he is right — what Kardashian is going through shines a spotlight on what so many women go through.
Just on Tuesday, a 53-year-old Gqeberha man pleaded guilty in the city’s high court to the murder of his mother, who, it emerged in court, had a protection order against her own son.
Papers before the court indicate the protection order was taken out against Peter Lyons before the November 28 2019 murder of his mother, Mabel.
Confessing to the murder, Lyons said that after years of allegedly being humiliated and belittled by his mother, he strangled her, suffocated her with a pillow and stood on her chest to make sure she was dead.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to life behind bars.
Lyons’ court appearance comes just weeks after the SA Police Service in February released statistics painting a grim picture of an alarming increase in domestic crimes during the third quarter of 2021, from October to December.
Statistics for the Eastern Cape show the number of people murdered went from 20 in the previous quarter to 51.
More than likely, there are those among these 51 who would have sought help — from family, friends, even the police.
And lawyers agree it is important for anyone in a domestic relationship, be it blood relatives or people in a romantic relationship, to approach the courts if they have been a victim of abuse, to obtain an interdict or protection order to prevent further abuse.
But what good does it actually do?
As Noah said, if Kardashian — with all the resources at her disposal — cannot stop West’s harassment, how are women without the means meant to do so?
It is time protection orders and interdicts become worth more than the paper they are printed on, something that actually protects those they are designed to protect and prevent harm, even death.
Or else, why even bother?
HeraldLIVE