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A30 world news
Dialuna 18 OctOber 2021

Gambian Toufah Jallow tells of surviving rape by dictator

rape and her tense escape and recognize her. She went to activist who helped guide Jal-
the resulting traumas and Senegal and with the help of low and led the human rights
challenges. trusted allies made it to Can- investigation into sexual as-
ada where she now lives. sault in Gambia that saw her
Jallow said she wants to be come forward.
a role model for others who For years, no one in Gambia
have experienced sexual as- knew what had happened to “There was this moment
sault and to help them deal Jallow. She lived as a refugee of support ... women com-
with it. in Canada, working odd jobs ing out generally about rape
to support her classes. and having a story to share
“I wanted to make my life as showed they weren’t in-
relatable to young girls as pos- “For the longest time ... I visible anymore,” she said.
sible so (they see) that what I would always shove it aside,” “Gambians realized too how
did is achievable (and) is not she said of her trauma. But widespread the issue was.”
seen as a miracle,” she said. seeing statistics for sexual as-
“It takes an ordinary girl who sault with so few being held That hope, however, has
grew up in a village some- accountable bothered her. “I unfortunately dwindled,
where in The Gambia with a have never felt more invis- Volkmann-Brandau said, as
(AP) — Toufah Jallow’s report in June 2019. She also mother and with 20 siblings ible,” she said of that period. the legal system must be re-
name resonates deeply in testified months later to the in a polygamous home.” formed in order to take sexu-
Gambia as one of the few Truth and Reconciliation Speaking about sex and sexu- al assault seriously.
women who has taken a Commission. Coming from a humble ality, “it’s just not done,” in
public stand against sexu- background, Jallow was Gambia, she said. There is But the groundwork has been
al assault in the small West Now, Jallow is telling her swept into a high-profile not even a word for rape in laid and Jallow has started the
African state. story in detail in a newly re- role because of her scholar- her native Fula language, she Toufah Foundation, set up to
leased memoir: “Toufah: The ship, attending many public explained to AP. Instead peo- help support of survivors of
She gained fame at the age of Woman Who Inspired an Af- events with then-president ple use phrases like “Some- sexual assault in Gambia. Her
18 when she won a university rican #MeToo Movement.” Jammeh. After receiving gifts body fell on me.” goal is to have Gambia’s first
scholarship in a national tal- from Jammeh, who was al- fully functioning women’s
ent competition for young “In June 2015, Yahya Jam- ready married, and rejecting Jammeh lost elections and shelter.
women. But in 2015 she fled meh, then the president of his proposal to become one fled the country in 2017.
Gambia, fearing for her life, The Gambia, raped me. He of his wives, Jallow was lured Gambia then opened a Truth Her name is now used to
after dictator Yahya Jammeh has never been charged. Nev- to the president’s private and Reconciliation Commis- discuss rape in communities
allegedly drugged and raped er convicted ... He thought quarters, where she says he sion to investigate the reports once unable to talk about it.
her, angry that she had turned he would get away with it, drugged and raped her. of abuses and killings during
down his marriage proposal. tried to erase me. I thought I his 22-year rule. She travels to Gambia often,
would never speak of it, that Jammeh hasn’t reacted, but while studying in Canada to
She lived quietly in Canada, I would remain invisible. We his party has denied every- When Jallow came forward be a counselor for women
worried that Jammeh would were both wrong, because I thing. in 2019 about her assault, and children victims, and is
persecute family members in am here, shining like the sun- it unleashed a movement. also working on a documen-
Gambia. After Jammeh fell rise of the melanated coast,” Jallow didn’t tell a soul in More than 50,000 people tary that follows survivors of
from power she later found she writes. “I am Toufah Jal- Gambia, fearing the worst for were glued to social media sexual violence.
the strength to go public with low. This is my story.” herself and her family. She when she first spoke. Women
her story, despite Gambia’s knew there were hundreds then marched holding ban- And if Jammeh returns to
culture of silence over sexual In the book, co-written with of people who had been ar- ners saying “#IAmToufah” Gambia, Jallow says she will
assault, she told The Associ- journalist Kim Pattaway, Jal- rested for daring to question and there was an outpouring fly there to confront him.
ated Press. low describes her journey Jammeh. of others’ stories of rape.
from the daughter and grand- “I feel like I am too visible to
The nation was riveted when daughter of women who in Terrified, Jallow fled Gambia. Jallow speaking out was a be invisible anymore,” she
she held a press conference to their own way pushed against She hid her identity by wear- “wind of change” in Gam- said. “I have faced the worst
share her account via social the country’s patriarchy to ing a niqab (head-to-toe veil) bia, said Marion Volkmann- fear ... I have survived him
media and in a human rights the evening of her alleged so that state agents wouldn’t Brandau, a women’s rights physically.”

Shooting in Syria could mark new phase in Israeli campaign

(AP) — The death of a was indeed killed by Israel, nexation, though the Trump in part because they have rel- border.
former Syrian Druse law- it would mark the first time administration declared the atives on the other side of the
maker, allegedly by Israeli that Israeli snipers are known territory to be part of Israel.
sniper fire, could mark to have killed someone iden-
a new phase in what Is- tified as an Iranian-linked Saleh was born in Majdal
rael calls its war against target across the border. Is- Shams, in the Israeli-con-
Iranian entrenchment in rael has said it will not toler- trolled side of the Golan,
neighboring Syria. ate a permanent Iranian mili- and was jailed several times
tary presence in Syria and has by Israel, most recently for
Syria’s state-run news agency acknowledged carrying out 12 years until 1997. He later
said that Midhat Saleh was scores of airstrikes on alleged moved to Syria, was elected
fatally shot Saturday in Ein Iranian arms shipments and to parliament in 1998 and
el-Tinneh, a village along the military targets in Syria in re- served as an adviser to the
Israeli frontier in the Golan cent years. government on the Golan is-
Heights where he ran a Syr- sue.
ian government office. Israeli Israel captured the Golan
media said Saleh had been Heights from Syria in the The small Druse commu-
assisting the Iranian military 1967 Mideast war and later nity living in the Israeli-con-
against Israel. annexed the strategic terri- trolled side of the Golan gen-
tory, which overlooks north- erally has good relations with
The Israeli military declined ern Israel. Most of the world Israel. But many members
to comment, but if Saleh does not recognize the an- still profess loyalty to Syria,