The Bible and Gender-Based Violence in Botswana

The Bible and Gender-based Violence in Botswana foregrounds the rampancy of gender-based violence against women and girls in biblical texts and how it resonates with gender-based violence (GBV) in the author’s contemporary context of Botswana.

The volume reads selected texts from the Bible alongside newspaper reports of GBV against women and girls in Botswana to show that while the Bible is taken as an authoritative text within the Botswana context, it is riddled with GBV against female persons. It asserts that by acknowledging and naming GBV in biblical texts and not concealing, ignoring, or spiritualizing it, contemporary communities of faith will be able to confront the problem in these contexts. By so doing, the book argues, the Bible will become a resource for positive transformation rather than a tool for supporting gender injustice.

The book appeals to everyone willing to see positive change in regard to gender in/equality and is intended for a wide readership including researchers, postgraduates, church and other representatives of religious institutions, and upper-level undergraduates.

Mmapula Diana Kebaneilwe is a Senior Lecturer of the Hebrew Bible at the University of Botswana. She is a Humboldtian Research Fellow in Germany, and the author of ＂Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse＂ in Reaves, J., Tombs, D. and Figueroa, R. (Eds.), When Did We See You Naked (2021).