Power, privilege and violence and injustice against women

Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK), the once powerful managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and France’s presidential hopeful, is now an alleged sex offender waiting for trial for allegedly sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a chambermaid in Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan on 14 May 2011.

It is fortunate he was not an African whose power and privilege could save him from prosecution.

What if DSK was an African head of the IMF and presidential hopeful of an African country?

What if he was a head of the army of an African country?

What if DSK had been a close relative of a president of an African country?

What if he had been an ambassador of an African country?

What if DSK had been a flamboyant African millionaire?

Here are the odds:

No policeman in his right mind would have dared arrest a man of the stature of DSK;

That famous DSK would have spent more 24 hours in the same jail cell as common criminals? Not on the African continent!

The matter would never have made international headlines;

The hotel would have bribed the “nonentity” chambermaid to keep her mouth shut;

Had the chambermaid been so foolhardy as to accuse a big man, chances are she would have lost her job;

Had the police been called on the scene, they might have promised an ‘investigation’ without consequence;

Had the case ended up in Court, the judge might have dismissed it for ‘lack of evidence’;

The chambermaid might have ended-up in prison for character ‘assassinating’ an important man;

The chambermaid might have died in prison after a ‘short illness’;

The chambermaid might have been released after serving a short sentence but might have been found dead in ‘mysterious circumstances’;

The chambermaid might have been released but she would have had to flee the country;

Now imagine if all the housemaids, secretaries, office clerks and other women could scream about their sexual ordeals at the hands of wealthy and powerful assailants instead of suffering in silence!

Imagine if all the children defiled by their male relatives could open their mouths!

Imagine if the courts could prosecute sex offenders regardless of their wealth, power and privilege!

Imagine if all African women could break the silence of sexual abuse without fear of shame and reprisal!

But I have a dream:

That all will one day recognise sexual violence for what it is: A very serious crime against women;

That the ‘virtuous’ wives of the rich and famous men will one day stop demonising the ‘dirty and immoral prostitutes’, ‘the ungrateful sisters and cousins’; these ‘heartless home breakers’ and ‘husband poachers!’ stalking, seducing and ‘tying themselves’ on their ‘innocent’ husbands;

That married women will soon stop being complicit in own victimisation and oppression;

That married women will soon starting saying ‘enough is enough’ like the wives of Silvio Berlusconi, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Wood, and other wives of the world’s rich and famous husbands;

That School compounds and University campuses will soon become safe environments for our young girls and women;

That young women will soon have the courage and confidence to resist the advances of Sugar daddies;

That parents will soon seek justice and refuse monetary compensation when their children are defiled;

That society will soon stop stigmatising and ostracising rape survivors;

That children born of rapes will soon be treated with empathy and respect rather than rejection;

That violence against women in all its forms will soon be indefensible;

That all the chains of social and cultural bondage that sexually enslave African women will soon break loose;

That the monolithic wall of silence guarding the age-old silent epidemic will one soon totally collapse;

That all African women will soon begin screaming against sexual violence;

That the sight-hearing-and-legally-impaired society and justice system will soon recover;

That the rule of law will soon apply equally to the rich and famous as to the poor;

That justice will soon prevail over power, privilege and injustice;

That day will be a day of true liberation for African women;

That day! That day!

The day of reckoning is nigh!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Kabahenda Nyakabwa, PhD, is an independent researcher based in North America. She researches and writes on issues affecting women. She has published in the areas of HIV/AIDS, forced migration, politics, conflict and gender-based violence with an emphasis on Africa.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.