Rape survivor calls for re-education of boys
Published:Friday | December 13, 2024 | 6:18 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Tamika Williams, a public relations officer at the St James Combined Association, is calling on parents to re-educate boys in how to treat women and girls.
Williams, a survivor of sexual violence, made the call in the aftermath of the surfacing of an amateur video showing a group of boys sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
“The St James Combined Association had our conference on the elimination of violence toward women on November 23. On November 25, after our conference, we awoke to drama over the Internet, where a video was posted with the rape of a young girl, a minor,” said Williams as she addressed Thursday’s meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.
“As a female standing in front of you today, I tell you that I am very happy that video was posted – as controversial as it is – because women have been crying about this type of gang rape that is a rite of passage for boys in schools with girls, and it has fallen on deaf ears,” she said.
“Once a young girl hits puberty, we get breasts and we do not know what to do with them, and we get pubic hair just as boys do. It gives no one the right to decide that they are going to break you down, because it stays with you,” noted Williams. “I have male friends who say to me that the only thing a woman is good for is to have children; the only contribution a woman has made to society is to procreate; and that is so untrue. We have to get our boys in an area where our boys are confident enough to not be so intimidated by women that you have to break us.”
Several persons were taken into custody and charged with a range of offences including rape, forcible abduction, producing child pornography, and distributing child pornography as a result of the referenced video. The 13-year-old was referred to the Victim Services Division for counselling and support.
In her presentation, Williams said approximately one in every five women in Jamaica have reported being raped or sexually assaulted.
“Ninety per cent of violence against women takes place in the one place that should be our safest place – our homes. Every day, 130 women are murdered across the world, and not by some stranger on the street, not by some gang, but by a lover, a husband, a brother, or a friend. The statistics say that 15 to 20 per cent of women in Jamaica have reported that they have been taken by force, so for every five women you see, one has been raped,” said Williams.
“We cannot continue like this. The world is changing, but I believe there is a place in the world for the values that our parents and grandparents instilled in us,” she added.
The Women’s Health Survey 2016 Jamaica reported that one in every four women has experienced physical and sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and that only one in eight women who had ever been raped were attacked by a stranger. The report also indicated that 15.8 per cent of women who were surveyed believed that a woman who has been raped did something careless to put herself in that situation.