These Brave Women Went Topless to Protest Rape Culture on Campus

Impact

Many say there's a rampant rape problem at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. 

But officials have failed to address it.

So women came together to make them pay attention — by going topless on campus in April, according to the Guardian.

The message? Using their bodies to make a statement. 

One of those statements: a woman's clothing choice never justifies rape.

"Still not asking for it," one woman's chest read.

The protest came after they published a list of names of alleged campus rapists, according to the Daily Maverick.

Women have used nudity to protest injustice before. 

And they've been doing so elsewhere. It's been happening in Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya and Uganda for over 100 years, according to Okayafrica.

In 1929, during the Women's War in Eastern Nigeria, women marched naked to resist colonial authority. In doing so, they're both drawing attention to their cause and redefining Western tropes about what the naked body symbolizes — and it's way more than just sex