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Not silent anymore: Sexual abuse victims speak up for justice
A short documentary, produced by LBH APIK and WatchdoC, encourages sexual abuse victims to speak up
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Illustration of victim blaming. (Shutterstock/File)
K
artika Jahja had been silent for more than 25 years until she became determined to come out as a survivor of the sexual abuses she endured as a 6-year-old girl.
For a quarter of a century she had been haunted by fears that sharing her depressing past might backfire, that people may put the blame on her and get the wrong perception about her.
Her story was about her being sexually abused for more than a year by someone who lived with her family, as she was a child and she didn’t know that what he did to her was a crime.
Now a musician and feminist, Kartika started to view the world from a different perspective in 2010 when she got along with women rights activists and fellow sexual violence victims.
Three years later, in 2013, she mustered enough courage to reveal her traumatic past in an interview with The Jakarta Post with the aim of encouraging others to speak out, lighten their mental burden and know that they were not alone.
“The more often I share my sufferings openly, the lighter my burden becomes and the rape stigma is more bearable,” the 38-year-old said.
After she had her story published, some sexual abuse victims contacted her, asking her for advice.
