Abstract
Abstract:
South Africa (SA) has alarmingly high statistics showing that everyday millions of women experience violence perpetrated against them, yet few women report their abuse.Drawing on data from participant observation and interviews, this paper examines how a group of women in Grace Bible Church and the Zionist Christian Church understand experiences of violence against women and why they so often do not report abuse. Using Foucault’s theoretical understanding of surveillance and the pastorate, the paper shows how technologies of power are used by church women to control how women attending these churches understand acts of violence perpetrated against them, to such an extent that they come to believe that it is part of their roles as women to be submissive to their husbands, even if these men abuse them.This research finds that women are silenced with technologies of power and are not given spaces in which to acknowledge, express or report the violence against themselves that they experienced or had seen other members in their church go through.