Rape disclosure: The interplay of gender, culture and kinship in contemporary Vietnam

Abstract

This paper examines the social management of rape within kin groups in contemporary Vietnam, with a particular focus on the decision whether or not to seek legal redress. Post-rape management entails negotiations among families on matters such as apology and compensation before a decision is made about whether to report the incident to the authorities. By drawing on an ethnographic study of a limited number of respondents, this paper highlights how rape disclosure is often bound up with notions of family honour, with assumptions about kinship, gender relations, social belonging and shared responsibility in a collective society such as Vietnam. © 2012 Copyright Nguyen Thu Huong.