THE EDITOR, Sir:
I HAVE just said a warm goodbye and 'have a good day' to my newly turned 15-year-old daughter. She has not, in fact, gone off to school but rather she has demonstrated incredible courage and determination in standing up for women by participating in a 'Walk Against Male Violence'.
She has taken up the banner that we, the adults, should. Why are we allowing children to do the work of the elders of their society? I am proud of my child and prouder still of the 1,500 or so of her peers who will, in a few moments, do the work that we have neglected to do. I am in awe of their determination and am shamed into doing my part by expressing concern about the many stories of violence against women that I have read about or heard directly of.
In November of last year I received a phone call which shook me to my very core. My 75-year-old deaf aunt, living alone in a sleepy May Pen town, had been raped, and beaten, and robbed of the groceries her son, living in Kingston had brought for her the day before. Thanks to a neighbour she was found unconscious and the police and her son were called.
The ghastly offence was made even more so when I was informed that the officers said "she shouldn't be living alone" and did nothing. Her son was told they didn't have the 'resources' to communicate with someone with her disability, this despite the fact that she has always been able to 'communicate' without ever having learned sign language and was clear in her description of the two who took her by force for groceries.
The police didn't even have the decency to take her to the hospital. It was left up to her devastated son and daughter-in-law to do. No evidence was taken, despite her long fingernails and the residue of her rape left there. She was just left to bandage her emotional and physical wounds herself and in the comfort of family. How do we know we are doing enough to help her through her pain? How do we know she will survive this ordeal?
I flew to Jamaica and visited her very late at night to hold and comfort her and was deeply affected by one of the scars left on her arm. I had not been told that they had cut her and left her with a visible memory of that day of disrespect and violence.
My heart aches for her and for the many whose lives have been impacted by this injustice. I hurt for the many who hide in the shadows and feel the shame of the violence of rape, who have taken responsibility for what has happened to them. I hurt for those who, deciding they can't live with the memory, terminate their lives.
Where are the so-called politicians, the learned sociologists, the physicians and the police? They have not ever known the horror of being 'taken' by violence. They have not known the prison that the victims will live in forever.
Jamaican women unite, demand and secure what others have failed to do. Come out from the shadows and give a face to the horrific crime of rape and its accompanying violence. I appeal to you, particularly the upper middle class. You have the voice and power that others don't have. People will listen to you. Speak for those who can't. We owe it to our children, who we once thought were too young to have wisdom and courage but who, I learned today are in possession of many characteristics we, the adults, choose to ignore.
Lest you say, it's fine for me to tell you to come out from the shadows, not only have I known others who have experienced the lifetime imprisonment of rape, I have been a victim. There, I have now come out from the shadows, the first time, so that others can follow me and speak for those not yet able. I can now tell my daughter the story and hope she will be proud that she, without the knowledge of her mother's experience, made a decision today, which will help her mother finally to be released from the bondage of a violent act perpetrated on her so many years ago.
Dare I suggest that if this crime were to be frequented upon the males of our society, more attention would be given to it? Dare I?
I am etc.,
"VICTIM"
Via Go-Jamaica
