Although advocates for women’s rights in
Cameroon encourage rape victims to speak out, socio economic realities on the
ground still makes it difficult for victims to seek for justice.
Recently, I came face to face with this
reality as I tried to help a close friend who had been raped. As expected,
she was traumatized following the incident. I held her as she narrated her
ordeal. I could hear the pain in her voice as I held her close. I let her cry
her heart out. The perpetrators did not use a condom, and we needed to
rush her to hospital her medical check up.
We made contacts with some private clinics and
were referred to the government hospital. We were told that in case of
accidental exposure to HIV and other STIs it was best for us to go to a
government hospital. When we arrived the hospital routine consultations had
ended and we went straight to the Emergency Department. There were four other
people there but as far as the victim was concerned, four people are more than
a crowd if you need o talk about something as personal as a rape.
I stood there waiting for the other people in
the room to leave so we could be alone with the nurse. We had no idea who the
others were because they had no indenification batches or any uniform unlike
the nurse in attendance.
The male nurse could not have been more
nonchalant. He was chewing some roast corn, taking generous bites off the maize
cob and speaking to us while he ate.
Nurse: “Yes what do you want? Do you
have an emergency?”
Me: “Yes, we do”
Nurse:”who has a problem .You or the girl.
What’s the emergency? Is she pregnant and bleeding?”
Me: “No she is not pregnant and
bleeding” I was beginning to get annoyed, is that the only kind of case that
qualifies as an emergency here. I wondered.
I leaned close to his table and whispered “My
friend says she was raped this afternoon”
Nurse:”Ok, that’s not an emergency. You people
should just take a seat outside and wait”. I went out with my friend, and came
back and stood at the door. As far as I was concerned, this was more than an
emergency!
A couple of minutes later, the male nurse
asked us to come back. We sat down and he took about 15 – 20 minutes to clear
his desk, before attending to us. The door was left open and people kept moving
in and out, some interrupting the consultation as he tried to get the facts of
her story.
He asked for details of the rape. Before my
friend could even make two sentences, he said:. “How could you even do that ………
How could you this, how could this have happened?”
Blame Game
I just could
not believe my ears. How could he be blaming the victim at this point? Victims
often blame themselves and when they seek medical help, should not be under
more pressure. They need love and assurances and not more blame for an incident
they did not want. That is why some people will suffer in silence instead of
reporting they had been raped.
This reminds me
of an interview I once had with a lawyer on the subject of rape. He told
me in no uncertain terms that women most often were responsible for being raped
and remember this was from a supposedly “learnt” lawyer. The lawyer said the way
some women dressed exposing “enticing” body parts was an invitation for rape.
I personally
think that a woman cannot invite rape on herself. It doesn’t matter if she
wears a bikini or a burka! It does not matter if she visits you at your place
or accept you pay her a visit in her house. It does not matter if
she is 17 or 70; it does not matter if she allows you to kiss her at
first. It does not matter if she is your girlfriend or a stranger.
When/if a woman says NO, it means no. NO Means NO.
Money Matters
Back to my
raped friend. When we finally met the doctor, he was much nicer. He didn’t
blame her. He did his checks, offered counsel, recommended some lap tests and
then prescribed some medication. The consultation and tests cost about
5000FCFA. A medical certificate (required to file police report and set a case
in motion) we were told will cost about 7.000FCFA. This all adds up and most
rape victims in Cameroon cannot afford this.
When we
eventually went over to the lab, the technician was visibly tired. As she took
blood samples and vaginal smear for the test, she murmured about how tired and
hungry she was. The danger of a tired nurse and the ratio of patients to
medical personnel in Cameroon is a topic for another day.
Reporting Rape
Following the
checks and lab tests, my friend received the medical help she needed to prevent
any infections that she might have contracted from the sad encounter. However
she has yet to get justice for what was done to her.
These
socio-economic factors must be considered when urging women to report rape or
speak out against it. Even when victims speak out and seek justice, the next
question is if they will ever get any kind of justice.
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