Jacob Zuma, once thought to be South Africa’s next president, shocked people around the world with his views on rape and AIDS in his testimony during his trial for the charge of raping the HIV-positive daughter of a family friend. Zuma, 64, being of Zulu descent, endows himself with all the privileges of patriarchal Zulu traditions. He said that his accuser, 31, signaled a desire for sex when she came to his home wearing a knee-length skirt and, sitting with legs crossed, revealed her thigh.

The accuser, who has known Zuma since childhood, said she referred to him as “uncle” up until the night of the alleged rape on Nov. 2, 2005.

The accuser said that she was sleeping overnight in Zuma’s guest bedroom when he came into her room and offered her a massage. When she declined, she says, Zuma raped her. The accuser said she did not resist because she was too shocked to respond.

“Sometimes the mere presence of the assailant petrifies the victim to the point that they don’t resist,” said junior Polly Kanoy, a Criminal Justice major. “The victim just shuts down.”

“They would rather endure the rape then risk being injured or killed,” Kanoy said. “Just because someone does not resist does not mean it is not rape.”

Zuma claims that he was practically obliged to have sex with his accuser.

“In Zulu culture, you cannot just leave a woman if she is ready,” Zuma said to The New York Times.

He said that denying the woman sex would have been tantamount to rape. Therefore, Zuma argued that he is being persecuted for his cultural beliefs.

“As I was growing up as a young boy, I was told if you get to that stage with a woman and you don’t do anything it is said she will become infuriated with you,” Zuma told the court.

Zuma claimed that the woman came to his bedroom and asked for a massage. He said she did not resist kisses or his sexual advances.

“If she had said no, I would have stopped there and gotten up and left,” Zuma said to CNN.

Duduzile, Zuma’s daughter, lives with her father and said that she was convinced her father’s accuser had an ulterior motive for coming to the house that night.

“I thought it was very inappropriate to be in someone’s house and a guest and dressed like that,” Duduzile said to CNN. “The way she was dressed, I thought she was definitely trying to entice my dad to sleep with her that night.”

“The way the survivor dresses, the way she behaves, and all of those kinds of sentiments really try and put the focus on the survivor, and somehow, in some strange twist, hold the survivor accountable for behavior that is only the accused responsibility,” said Carrie Shelver, a spokeswomen for People Against Women Abuse, to ABC.

Zuma said that he knew the woman was HIV-positive but he did not use a condom. He believed his chance of contracting the disease was small because he was too healthy. He said he showered afterward because “it was one of the things that would minimize contact with the disease.”

South Africa also has the world’s highest rate of AIDS with an estimated 5 million people carrying the virus. In South Africa, 1,000 people die each day of AIDS-related diseases and 2.5 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

The accuser testified that because she is HIV-positive, she would never agree to unprotected sex and has not done so for the past decade. She cites this as proof of the rape. Prosecutors said that the woman regards herself as a lesbian.

“Zuma’s act comes at a time when women have equality, but only on paper,” said Eleanor Branch, Assistant Professor of English. “Women are disempowered in South African culture, which of course allows for and perhaps even encourages inci–dents of rape.”

“Revulsion at apartheid’s brutality led the nation’s founders to write one of the world’s most enlightened constitutions, making equal rights a pillar of society,” said Steven Friendman, a veteran analyst at the Center for Policy Studies in Johannesburg in South Africa, to The New York Times.

“But public support for that ideal has yet to undergo a test by fire of the sort Zuma could pose,” Friendman said.

“One of the lessons that people learned from apartheid is that dominance equals violence, which means men often assert their dominance and masculinity through sexual violence,” Branch said.

Before the scandal, Zuma, a gifted politican, was one of the most popular figures in the African National Congress (ANC) and seemed destined to lead the nation.

Zuma believes the rape charge is a part of a political conspiracy to deny him the presidency.

“This case is probably not going to change things for women in South Africa,” Branch said. “It may make matters worse, since the victim is now being blamed for ruining what’s left of Zuma’s career and because she didn’t do anything to stop him.”

“Zuma is likely to retain support in many parts of South Africa, if only because much of the population is still rooted in patriarchy,” said Nombonism Gasa, a political analyst who worked in the ANC during the 1980s, to The New York Times.

At the end of March, Zuma’s lawyers unsuccessfully attempted to have the case dismissed. Johannesburg High Court Judge Willem van der Merwe ruled that the trial would continue because the charges may yet be proven.

Lead prosecutor Charin de Beer said to CNN, “we have always believed that we have a provable case, and we are indeed prepared for the next phase of the trial.”

A guilty verdict could result in a 15-year jail sentence for Zuma.

Women’s groups acknowledged the trial’s continuation as a victory for justice.

“It sends a strong message to anyone who has been raped that coming out and reporting rape is the right thing,” said Catherine Nykator of the One in Nine Campaign to ABC.