Sexual abuse and victim-blaming — and their devastating consequences — are things that know no geographical bounds. We’ve seen this played out too many times in the wake of Standford rapist Brock Turner‘s cozy prison sentence and Emma Sulkowicz‘ brave crusade against her own campus assault. But in extra-patriarchal parts of the world like Russia and the Ukraine, women are even more pressured to suffer in silence. One powerful hashtag is now helping those women find solidarity with other victims by speaking up about their experiences as victims of sexual assault.
ImNotAfraidToSpeak was born when a Ukrainian woman named Anastasiya Melnychenko, who is the head of a human rights organization, came across a Facebook post by a man who had just encountered a rape victim in a park. Apparently the victim “shouldn’t have been hanging around alone at night,” the man concluded. Melnychenko wrote her on Facebook post in response, expressing her obvious anger with his dangerous and uninformed view. “We are not to blame, a rapist is always to blame,” she wrote. “I’m not afraid to talk. And I don’t feel guilty… Do men ever wonder what it is like to grow up in an atmosphere where you are treated like meat? You didn’t do anything, but everyone feels entitled to fuck you and dispose your body.” Encouraging assault survivors to come forward with their harrowing stories, she ended, “for us, the women, it is important to talk about our experiences. It is important to make it visible. Please speak…”
Melnychenko’s post has now been shared over 300 times by women (and some men) who are sick of living in a society that feeds on silence and fear. “I expected there would be a massive response,” she told the Kyiv Post. “But their stories touched my heart.” Victim-blaming is not only common but considered normal in Ukraine, a country still feeling the lasting effects of the Soviet Union, under which speaking openly of sex was taboo. “[A woman] will have to prove the she was raped, being subjected to humiliating tests, questioning and even physical examinations. Otherwise it is just her word against his,” Melnychenko said.
Katya Kermin, a Russian woman who developed a panic button ring after surviving her own assault, commended the bravery of the women coming forward. “Something very powerful and breathtaking is happening now on Facebook,” she wrote. “It’s both the content and the volume that stroke me, taking my breath away while my eyes followed short sentences. And I know there’s more, much more. I feel the unspoken words; they burn my skin. I admire the pure bravery and candidness of those who dared to tell, I see others cheer my friends up and express support — and it’s beautiful, it’s powerful, it’s even more important than we can imagine.”
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Image via Flickr