Tam
⏱ 2'
I was sexually abused as a child for many continuous years by relatives. I put it under the carpet and moved on with my life, only to discover later that the trauma was there and had been affecting everything I had done or attempted to do in my life.
Another traumatic experience was when I was attacked in the street by a stranger in broad daylight, close to my neighborhood. He started calling dirty things to me, asking me to go with him, and when I had accelerated my pace he ran after me, grabbed me from the back, grasped my breasts, but fighting with all of my strength I managed to escape him. I cannot forget the fear I felt and how fast I had run to my friends’ place. I had not intended to tell them, I felt dirty, but they insisted. They saw that my face looked like I had seen a ghost. They put me in the car and we drove around hoping to run into this guy. He was nowhere, but I felt safe with them.
Later, I was exposed to the red light district of Athens. I would walk by the brothels and I would regularly meet women in prostitution. These were women who would tell me their stories of abuse, how they were under the control of other men, sometimes their own husband or family. Some of them found no other way to pay for their childrens’ operations, their medicine, their kids’ drugs. I was crushed with compassion for them and I decided to fight.
I had one or two friends who fought with me through my own trauma and I was driven to also fight for these women and any woman who is robbed of this immensely precious and sacred thing. Their right to their own body. I was shown love and care, so I fight because that IS love and care for my fellow humans.