A self-taught Durban makeup artist channelled the unsettling reality of gender-based violence into breathtaking body art, sparking vital conversation and inspiring a nation to confront the crisis.
Durban, South Africa (17 November 2025) – The past few weeks have truly sharpened the focus on the unsettling reality of gender-based violence and the lack of safety faced by countless women and children in our country.
Social media and public spaces have actively turned people, more signatures have been added to the Women for Change petition, and more and more activists, supporters, and brave survivors are raising their voices in the conversation that seeks to confront this widespread, ugly abuse.
Adding her voice to the thousands was a talented makeup artist, Simphiwe Mbatha, who used her well-supported platform and makeup artistry to champion this cause.
In a recent video shared on her social media, Simphiwe, widely known as Colour Me Sim, reads out a powerful poem about the cost of being a woman in South Africa as she paints a bruised woman on her chest before moving on to her face, as she crafts a dynamic artwork.
Her poem reads:
If I knew the cost of being a woman, I would have paid that debt in full
I’d gather the gold of my laughter and trade it for safety
Cruel
I’d wrap my dreams in armour, so no hand could bruise its glow
I’d whisper freedom’s name in secret, for the world was not ready to know
I pray for the girls who walked home crying, for the sisters who never came back
Their names carved deep in silence, their stories fade into black
Lord, gather the bones of our mothers
Turn their pain into thundered flame
Let justice roar in every corner
Let no one forget their name
We are not born for bleeding, we are not shaped for pain
We are the rhythm of the rising, the sun after the rain
If I knew the cost of being a woman, I’d still choose this soul, this skin
For even when the world forgets us, we fight, we rise, we begin
So, bless the broken and breathing
Bless the daughters who still stand tall
May our voice shake the heavens till no woman falls at all
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Clothed with moving words that speak to the violence that seeks to deprive women of their inherent strength and power, Simphiwe’s final makeup look, with cracks and hues of purple, struck a chord with many viewers who praised her talent and creative activism.
Her stunning and courageous artistry serves not just as a visual representation of the pain endured by South African women, but as a renewed charge to every viewer: to amplify awareness and join the widespread movement determined to build a future where women and children can finally know true safety.
Sources: Colour Me Sim
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