WARNING: POST DEALS WITH RAPE. SO IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH PLEASE DO NOT READ. THANK YOU
Listening to Rabbit Hole by Sanagi, I vaccumed the Living room when I heard a knock at the door. "Dottie!" I exclaimed. We quickly embraced, and then she told me about a film screening that she was going to go to with a few of her friends and asked if I wanted to join. Gladly I accepted. We reached Iternis where we met up with her friends, and drove down to downtown Salt Lake to view the film documentary.
It started off with a man by the name of Louis Gokumba. A refugee from Rewanda. He began by reading two poems about situations that he had witnessed. One of them I really enjoyed. It talked about how the Rewandans were going through so much trials and tribulations. It all seemed but a dream. Women getting raped seemed all but a dream. Violence in the streets seemed all but a dream. People being mutilated seemed all but a dream. It's true so many terrible things were going on. You hope that somehow you can wake up and it will all be JUST a dream, a nightmare, but sadly you have to face that is in only reality.
Then began the film that was a real eye opener for me. This Film was called "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. Directed by Lisa F. Jackson. This movie started off by showing soldiers who were fighting the war in Congo.(which I had no Idea that there was one. Apparently this war is like an economic war. The Congo is overwhelmed in different kind of resources such as Uranium, diamonds, etc. But are being ripped off because more that 18 million dollars are being stripped from the people of Congo everyday. This war is so called trying to prevent that. But appears to make no difference at all.) These soldiers were asked about the women they raped. And why they did such a thing. They blamed it on they war. They said, "If the war never happened, this would never have happened." They then held up fingers about how many women they have raped.
These women were so violated by these soldiers in such a degrading way that I didn't even know was possible, or didn't even want to know or think about that it was possible. These rape victims ranged from the ages of 4-80. It brought me to tears to think that a man (he is not even considered a man to me) could actually bring himself to rape a little girl as young as four.
These soldiers did HORRIBLE things to the women. These women suffered, were humiliated, degraded, looked down on by their village and family because they were raped. And it wasn't even their fault.
The rapist soldiers that were being interviewed said that they do not regret raping women. If a women refused he would call his friends to come help force her down. One women would be raped by more than 17 men in one night alone. They would use their guns, tree branches, anything they could find, and tear up the inside of the woman's body. The rape victims that had this done to them were so damaged they had their uterus walls ripped right out. These women were dripping urine because they were damaged to the worse degree.
Tons of women ranging from 10 (maybe younger) to 50 (maybe older) years old were captured to be the soldiers slave victims. What one women said made me sick to my stomach and feel so much anger and hatred that I had never felt before. She said the children of these women were taken away from them. The soldiers would make the women eat their children. They would force the women to have sex with them. More than 7 men was very common. If the soldiers found out you were pregnant they made a child come sit or jump on your stomach so you can abort. They would gather the womb or placentea or whatever it was called, and made them drink it. These women were humiliated by these soldiers and not ONE of them regretted what they were doing.
What ticked me off, and what I found to be VERY hipocritical was what the soldiers had to say about rape. They all said they don't regret raping a women. But if they saw that their mom being raped or sisters, they would kill the man. How Hipocritical!!! One man even said, "If I saw my mom or sisters being raped I wouldn't do anything because I know it had to be done. Even if I walked in on it I wouldn't stop it." I wouldn't even want to consider that man to be my brother or son if he ever did that. That set me over the top.
But what I found to be more bizzare was the reason why they believed it was okay. It all came down to belief. The believed that in order to win the war they had to rape the women. They kept referring to the "magic potion" it was just so stupid to me I didn't even want to listen to the rest of what he was saying!
There was one seen where Lisa (the director who is white) went to go visit a home. As she walked in the children burst out crying hysterically. The translator later described it was because they thought the camera was a gun. These children live through so much terror they don't know that much about happiness.
The women, although having gone through horrendous ordeals, appeared to be strong and brave. They could have easily given up, and not have talked about the rape experience and left it a taboo issue, but they held their head up high and made the best of the situation they were in. You saw no one just abbondoning her family. Most victims kept the child they had from rape, they continued with their lifestyles. Some got married and had more children. Some though, weren't as lucky.
I can't even begin to tell you the amount of pain and struggles that these women have endured. Without women, the world will be NOTHING. We oftern refer our country as the "Mother Country" so when one women is being raped; the whole country is. The world will not survive without women. If you look to the streets of Congo, women are the transports. They are the Spine. The Head. The Neck. The EVERYTHING that anyone could ever need. So when you hurt a women, you're hurting yourself.
You hear about rape, you know that it exists, you know that is is a horrible thing, but I just didn't realize how much it can be taken to a higher extent. I probably did know that it could happen, but I didn't want to believe it. This film made me realize how lucky I am to be who I am today. Even though I know that rape does happen in the U.S; it isn't as bad as having a whole city being raped as in Congo, whole villiages of Women were being raped and mutilated everyday.
It made me feel stupid for even complaining about the problems that I face now. I just wish there was something that I could do for these women. I WILL find away to somehow make a difference. I don't know how.. but I WILL! People need to be informed on how severe rape really is. If we all speak out, W CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!
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