Rape, Why Me?
Why me? Rape victims ask themselves with pain in their heart. Rape is when someone forcefully has sexual intercourse with someone who has no such desire. Rape can happen to anyone, male or female, young or old. The thing about rape is that while it is going on, it causes physical pain which may last a few days or weeks but the mental and emotional pain lasts forever in the mind of the victims.
They ask themselves questions which no one can answer. They would ask: why didn’t anyone knock on the door or maybe a phone rings? Why didn’t he/she rape my friends who dress provocatively? Why didn’t God help me? What did I do to him/her to deserve this? Did I offend anyone in the past and this my punishment? Why didn’t he/she have mercy on me? Why didn’t he/she listen to my pleas? Why did I have to go there? Why didn’t I listen to my family and friend’s advice? Why does it have to be someone I trust the most?
No matter, how often they ask these questions, there is never an answer to them. Rape victims feel so impure, ashamed, violated, out of place and disorganised. This is just the little bit of the way they feel. Everyone knows they have been raped. At least that’s what they think.
They cry themselves to sleep, cry themselves to start a new day and also cry themselves in any closet they could find themselves. Some rape victims have the misfortune of being raped for the rest of their life and already see rape as a way of life. Being a rape victim is more like being sent to a lifetime of emotional and mental trauma.
Rape victims must understand that they own their life. They can either fight or be defeated. When one experiences rape; he\ she should report to the police, close family and friends, NGOs or religious leader, who they trust. It is normal to be frightened or feel people would not believe your allegation.
Don’t get frighten by the threatened words of the rapists who say words like “I would kill you if you say anything”, “nobody would believe you”, “I would get away with what I did to you and no one would do anything to me”. Princess Precious Osokoya, Lagos