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I recently listened to a radio interview about a young author who was raped as a young girl in three separate incidents when she was six and seven years old.
In the interview, it was revealed that three out of five young girls are at risk of being raped before they reach their teenage years.
A large number of the victims are raped by a family member or someone considered to be a family friend.
This is a person they trusted and believed would protect them from the monster with horns dressed in a red cape.
The victim recently, through her book, shared the gruesome events of what happened during the three different incidents of rape.
During the interview, some of the callers revealed how after the ordeal they buried the awful events at the back of their mind because they were too scared to speak out or report the perpetrators.
As young as they were they knew this was wrong but because their rapist was older and threatened to hurt them or even bribe them with money and sweets they chose to remain quiet.
It is unfortunate because these victims carry this burden for the rest of their lives while the perpetrators seem to carry on with their lives like nothing happened.
She explained how, as a mother, she is protective of her daughter and doesn’t allow her to visit relatives or go to sleepovers without her being present.
I wondered while listening to the interview if the perpetrators ever consider the pain they inflict on their victims.
Do they understand how they end up being scarred for life?
How did we get to the point where men feel the need to impose their masculinity on the vulnerable and don’t see anything wrong with it?
How long are we going to continue living in fear of having our girl children at high risk of being raped?
Who do we trust to be around our girl children when even their own biological father turns out to see them as meat they can nibble on?
We are really living in a sick and twisted world because the number of rape victims grows daily.
I believe it is about time men stand up and take a stand against this. They should start raising their voices and say ‘not in my name, enough is enough’.
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