EDITOR'S WARNING: This article contains graphic content about sexual violence and is not appropriate for children.
As poverty scholars we write stories that relate to us, and others as well. I personally had a real horrifying experience when I was nineteen years old. I was religious and a man whom I had known for a long time manipulated me, and I did things that I didn’t want to do or felt uncomfortable doing. After I lost my virginity and was not married, the whole community of Muslims treated me so terrible. They called me Mary Magdalene, a ho, an adulterer, and a person who has committed a serious crime. Afterwards over the podium, the preacher announced that I had become promiscuous I lost my dignity. I left and never went back. The man who had sex with me was praised and honored for getting that far.
This is what women go through all over the world, whether it is rape, pimping, or using women for self-pleasure and not love. I was preyed on because this man saw an innocent Muslim girl who has lost purity and is therefore a detriment to mankind. I felt like they were my family more than my blood relatives, but they disowned me and kicked me to the curb. The most amazing thing I did was get help from a professional, and got sent to Saint Francis for psychiatric reasons.
I am telling this story on media for the first time in my life because I read a book called Half The Sky, and the women in the book have life stories that are worse than mine could ever be. Rape can also mean being taken advantage of mentally. He raped my personal spirituality and my dignity.
I read about a village in Somalia that has a large number of rapes, and a doctor from another country actually wanted to open up a hospital and shelter for women in this village. Around eighty women get raped in this village every day. The doctor who established this awesome clinic made something called Rape-aXe, and it is inserted like a tampon except when the man rapes a woman it hurts him, and he can't take it off by himself - he has to go to the hospital emergency room. After reading that chapter it made me feel good that someone went through the same thing I did. Especially because the women are oppressed, not by religion but by man. And men use religion as a scapegoat to oppress women and make them feel unworthy for the rest of their life. Rape-aXe has helped even though in Somalia the women go through a lot. The doctor at this clinic has to pay off some men just to protect women who are at risk of getting killed. The women who have come to the clinic are not only raped but also humiliated, and physically tormented. Some women have acid on their face; others have body parts cut off and various other diseases like AIDS. Though the government does not like what this doctor is doing because women are not recognized as human beings in some countries, and they are looked at as objects and servants for men.
When someone rapes you it hurts two ways - physically and emotionally. Evidently the emotional part haunts you for the rest of your life. It is not fair that men use God to manipulate women. Half the Sky brought me joy, because I am so torn apart that I have never had a real relationship before and this happened when I was nineteen now I am twenty-nine. Stories like this have to be told and, creating rape-aXe is a revolutionary-minded action. It is not okay to abuse women, or demand women act a certain way because of how men feel. Now I follow inner peace and read a lot of inspirational books like this one. I learned about it in my diversity and sexism class at City College of San Francisco. As women we have to stand up and nourish ourselves by taking care of us first.