Contents Rape is a crime and NOT the fault of the Victim 1 Introduction 1 My Family and me as the over protective father 1 Protecting women from abuse. 2 The Substitute Sisters 2 Rape and why does society treat it the way it does? 2 Conclusion 3 References. 4 Rape is a crime and NOT the fault of the Victim Introduction I thought that I could only hear and see men on men crime and that the killing and hatred would only be limited to our menfolk. In my wildest dream, I have never thought that Gambians especially in positions of authority would abuse their positions to the point of it being exercised on our honourable women. These honourable women are our mothers, sisters, aunt grand-mothers, wives, daughters and so on.I cried unremittingly listening to Fatou Toufah Jallow about her ordeal. Her torment became my nightmare. Her excruciating pain became my agony. I could not continue watching the rest of the interview (Chronicle, 2019).I cried like a baby and I wept like a woman if I have to borrow the terminology of those male chauvinist. I no longer think I am qualified to use the phrase of Jeremy Hunt “be man enough” (Guardian, 2019) to explain why I could not control my emotions.In this short article, I have narrated why I have so much respect for women and how I had to pretend that some of my classmates were my real sisters who were no longer in school with me.I did little research on some articles to see whether this behaviour is only unique to The Gambia. It is intriguing that the suffering of women had been informally institutionalised in the most degrading manner. My Family and me as the over protective father I remember, when my daughter was only 3 years old I used to tell her “don’t talk to boys”. This is how over-protective I am as a father. My daughter is now 11 years and I still tell her “don’t talk to boys”. After watching this video and interview (Chronicle, 2019), I became more scared and worried and left me totally paranoid about the dangers girls faced in The Gambia.Protecting women from abuseI have always been an advocate of the rights of women even when I was young. I once wrote an article on the status of women when I was in Saint Augustine’s High in my final year at the sixth form where I elaborated how the status of women have been relegated from classical times to what it has been in recent years (Drammeh, 1995). In this article, I expressed how religion has been misinterpreted to put women at a disadvantage.I remember in those days having to defend so many girls from being abuse without any knowledge from them that it was my intervention that they were not approached for possible abuse. In those days it was very common for boys to have sexual activity with girls and sitting in “vous” to narrate the whole story and expose the inner privacy of the women they had interaction with without any shame whatsoever. I would often warned some boys that I have spoken to girls about their evil intention and that they will be humiliated if they approached these girls. I remember in those days talking to some girls in parables as if I am warning them of potential dangerous behaviour that is approaching them and telling them to be more vigilant. I did this because I have always treated my female colleagues as sisters. The Substitute Sisters I have to substitute these sisters for the sisters I lost in school as a result of being married at an early age at 17. I used to go to Old Jeshwang Primary School with my sisters and I was the youngest. I was being taken care of as their little baby brother. At the time I was enrolled at Old Jeshwang I was one of the youngest except that I was only older than Ya Ida Ceesay in the school but I was very bright. My class teacher was Mrs Demba and this was in 80s. She was not only a teacher to me but also a mother. I came from a very strict conservative Muslim home who regarded the role of women in a different light and were very wary of a highly western educated woman. As a result, my sisters were removed from school at Primary 5 and sent to learn in a Madrasah because they (my family) were scared they will refuse to get married to the family choice if they are highly educated. I called in my Primary 3 teacher (Mr Jammeh) to convince my dad to allow my sisters to continue with their education but no avail. My dad had this idea that the woman’s home is that of her husband and he had to prepare his children to dutiful wives. This was at a time when some of the children of Basirou Jawara and Alhagie Sankung sillah refused arrange marriages. This brought a lot of fear and panic in the community that my father associates with. Rape and why does society treat it the way it does? The major problem we faced as society and this applies to all; is that rape victims are most of the time treated with distrust and they usually face an antagonistic behaviour (Krahé, 1988). What we have seen also in The Gambian social media is that Fatou Toufah Jallow is further victimised as a liar despite her despicable ordeal. History is just repeating itself in a very sad manner. (Briere & Malamuth, 1983) established that the behavioural pattern of the “rape myth” has contributed to more aggressive sexual advance towards women. In this different from the rape victims of the Gambia? How many people are believed in The Gambia? How many men have severely beaten up their wives for refusal to have sexual intercourse? In addition, (Krahé, 1988) agreed that society’s perception in their belief in rape myths has increased not only the influence and interpretation of rape incidents but could in fact be conducive to sexual assault on women. Therefore relating this to Fatou toufah Bah’s case, we have seen how our Gambian society have been doubting her story and even questioning why she waited until now before coming forward. Distastefully, society have definition as to what constitutes “appropriate conduct” for women and any one in contravention of these rules would face consequences and these include certain role which are generally considered not companionable with the role of women (Krahé, 1988). In the Gambian context, they would often blame women who are savagely attacked for the way they dress and the places they visit instead of blaming the animals who attack them. Sadly, these victims are blamed as if they have triggered and asked for their own rape. If we look at our Gambian society, victims of rape hardly come forward because of the stigma and the blame game associated with it. Conclusion I can only conclude that rape myths and the blame game has contributed to a significant increase in rape and has put limitations on rape victims to report cases on rape. Society’s perception of the role of women should change and victim’s victimisation can have serious psychological consequences.Let me quote from the honourable member for Serekunda in a symposium organised by Saint Augustine’s high School students (Sallah, 1995) when he stated that the “human mind is both a reproducer and producer of ideas”. I therefore add that women are both the producer and reproducers of life and existence and any attempt to dishonour and disrespect them will only lead to a failed society. These are our honourable daughters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and wives. We are not competing but we are complimenting each other. We should change our attitude towards women and understand that no society can progress without women playing a significant part in that society. A child’s first teacher is always the woman and let us remember this. References Briere, J., & Malamuth, N. M. (1983, September). Self-reported likelihood of aggressive Attitudinal versus sexual explanations. Journal of Research in, 17(3), 315-323. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(83)90023-5Chronicle. (2019, June 27). Chronicle Politics page. Retrieved from Chronicle NewsPaper: https://www.chronicle.gm/Drammeh, M. (1995, December). The Status of Women. Student News Letter.Guardian, T. (2019, June 25). Guardian Opinion Conservative Leadership. (R. Behr, Editor) Retrieved 2019, from www.theguardian.com: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/25/jeremy-hunt-tory-party-boris-johnson-conservativesKrahé, B. (1988). Victim and Observer Characteristics as Determinants of Responsibility Attributions to Victims of Rape'. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18(1), 50-58. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb00004.xSallah, H. (1995). Symposium. NB: This is not an academic article though I used a bit of that style. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤