Imam Muhsin Hendricks - Statement

In South Africa, often praised for its progressive constitution and legislation in matters relating to gender equality and sexual diversity, queer people have experienced horrendous forms of violence, from the targeted rape and murder of Black lesbians particularly, to the brutal assaults and murders of transgender people. All too often we have witnessed the failure of the criminal justice system in dealing speedily and judiciously with these crimes. It is therefore not unreasonable that many fear that despite a video of his murder having gone viral, appropriate justice for Imam Muhsin Hendricks might not be forthcoming.

The death of Imam Muhsin Hendricks, a human rights activist who focused on gender and sexual diversity in Islam, is not only heartbreaking, but horrifying. Hendricks was shot in a targeted attack by masked assailants on the 15th of February 2025. While we do not know the motive behind his murder, the vitriol that has followed after his murder has left many people fearing that our constitutional promise and hard-won legislation against discrimination on any grounds, including sexual orientation, is being compromised by these base comments that have gone viral on various social media platforms. The seeming celebration and justification of the killing of Imam Muhsin because he was openly gay cautions us that we still have a long way to go in addressing gender and sexual diversity in our country, and the world.

Over the past two weeks, the African Gender Institute has been reflecting on what this means for the work we engage in. Specifically, we have seen the expansion of what is commonly termed the ‘anti-gender movement’ whose primary aim is to limit or deny access to human rights, including autonomy, mental and bodily integrity, and freedom from discrimination, for women and gender diverse people. Normative, harmful traditional beliefs about gender and sexuality are often used to justify the brutality regularly meted out on lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, and gay, bisexual and transgender men, with the “queer body” often seen and depicted as aberrant and therefore inconsequential.

This undermines the very foundations on which our democracy is built – that of respect for life, and the inherent dignity and equality of all. It also presents a huge challenge in our pursuit of our agenda of challenging and transforming gender relations on the African continent and ensuring that African feminist perspectives are centred in re-imagining democracy, human rights, social justice, inclusion and equity.

We join many others in calling for a thorough, speedy investigation and arrest of the perpetrators because if we do not confront this matter with all our energies, this brazen assassination makes way for the killing of any of us who do not conform to religious traditional social prescripts.