Ann Curry (rape victims)

On this dreary rainy day I thought it would be appropriate to talk about, in my opinion, the worst of the atrocities occurring in Darfur. Women and brutally raped as part of the Janjaweed’s terror. This is another Ann Curry article that I think give a simple but drastic enough cause of what’s going on. I couldn’t get the main video on this page to play, but there is also a set of three video excerpts at the bottom of the page. These pictures are from that video.

The video clips are of Darfurian women singing. What they are saying is to the right of the video. The courage and brevity they sing is so encouraging, yet at the same time you can see on their faces and in their eyes how much pain and grief they suffer from.


This is an excerpt from the story that affected me the most:
“Human Rights Watch estimates thousands of black women and girls have been systematically raped in the last three years.
"Often, women are scarred," says Eric Reeves, a Sudan analyst at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. "They have tendons cut, so as to mark them as having been raped. And, thus, unsuitable as brides and compromised as mothers and wives."

In the first sentence, the words “thousands” and “systematically raped” disturbed me the most, for obvious reasons. The worst part about the rapings, is that in the cultures in the region, a woman is shunned for being raped because she some how “brought it on herself.” When women are raped in the US, not that I’m saying that it’s good women get raped any where, there is so much support. Often that’s a major factor of how rape victims get through the experience. Not that I can relate or say someone’s experience is better than another’s.


I think of how I was at 17, rebellious and trying to do everything to get out of chores. My chores were typically cleaning my room or emptying the dishwasher. I try and think what it would be like to be putting dishes away and instead of worrying about what my friends were doing, worrying about getting raped. That’s clearly not a possibility or even a fathomable thought to have ever crossed my mind.

To leave this disturbing blog on a happy note, for me anyway, I am going away on spring break to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! I will start blogging again when I return on the 11th!