#BewareGoBare birthed as women unite

Three friends launched an awareness campaign to warn women of the imminent dangers of wearing jewellery in the public.

October 30, 2016

Natalie Grobler 2 minutes read

Three women have launched the #BewareGoBare campaign after their friend was shot for her wedding ring on Thursday.

And #BewareGoBare uses the incident to create an awareness about the risks to wearing jewellery in public.

“Hands are both strong and gentle. With our hands (empty of rings) we support all women that have been robbed or killed for their jewellery. It was a way for us to do something for our friend,” said one of the creators, Zenia Swanepoel.

Rekord reported on Friday that a woman in her 40s was in a critical condition in hospital after she was shot for her wedding ring in Highveld, Centurion.

According to Swanepoel, the woman was still in ICU but strong enough for doctors to operate on her.

“The family has requested that the woman’s identity be withheld for her privacy,” she said.

Elaine Castle, a friend and the other creator, said: “We have decided to not become targets and to warn other women.”

She said that as a group of friends, they never wanted to receive a distress call again about another friend in the same situation.

Leanette Pretorius, the third creator, said: “Women find it easy to band together as a tribe. We want to celebrate that too. Because of this incident we have formed new bonds, stronger bonds, a more dynamic relationship. We are taking back an element of control.”

Two of the three creators of #BewareGoBare have been victims of crime in the past.

Pretorius was robbed of her jewellery in November 2013 and Swanepoel in May 2015.

“We have coped in different ways with loss, violence, personal attacks and this was for our friend who took the bullet for all of us… to make all woman aware of what is happening,” Swanepoel said.

The women agreed that the initiative was to support their friend and not to force women to do something they didn’t want to.

“Our only request is for women to be vigilant, mindful of their surrounds, focused and remain in control as far as possible,” the group agreed.

“We all desperately want to wear what was given to us to celebrate the love of our partner. We should have the right to accessorise. We should not be held hostage with a gun for living our lives but this is our current reality,” said Pretorius.

The women have agreed, in solidarity with their friend, not to wear any jewellery until she is out of hospital. In solidarity with their friends.

“This is about everyone (male and female) that is supporting this drive. We all long to see her and let her know that we care about what happened but we have no access to her and we yearn to be at her side to make her smile again. So this is one of the reasons why we started the #,” Swanepoel said.