In fact, with estimates as high as one in four North American women being likely to experience sexual assault in her lifetime, odds are you know several sexual assault survivors.
But you probably don’t know who they are.
There’s a heap of misplaced shame and stigma associated with sexual assault. It’s why only eight per cent of sexual assaults are reported to police, why victim-blaming keeps victims quiet and why one brave survivor is speaking publicly about her assault.
Two years ago, McGill social work student Sarelle Sheldon was slipped a “date rape” drug, assaulted and left naked in a Montreal alley. She woke in a hospital, wallet, cell phone and clear details of the previous night all missing.
Sheldon is opening up about her assault in hopes that other survivors will break their own silence and the cycle of stigmatization.
“I really feel like silence has that rusty taste of shame, and it’s not something I want to hide. I didn’t do something wrong,” she says in the video.
The video has now been watched more than 11,000 times. Before now, Sheldon had only told about a dozen people about her assault.
She struggled to share her experience with those around her, lying about taking exams even after withdrawing from classes.
“I don’t’ want to be seen as the victim, or survivor to everybody,” says Sheldon.
Sheldon also shared her negative experience with police, who she says interrogated her, asking questions to suss out her own fault in the rape. After telling police that someone had used her stolen phone to talk to a friend, she told police her BlackBerry BBM number, but police were of no help. They told her to try calling BlackBerry herself.
“I was begging them to come and investigate a crime that happened to me while I was still going through this trauma,” she says.
Sexual assault is a vastly underreported crime.
She’s hoping that by speaking out, other survivors will speak out too.
A recent government survey of 207 sex abuse survivors at six sexual assault centres across Canada found that most did not even bother reporting their assault to police because they didn’t believe anything positive would come of it.
“There was a perception among some that while the survivor must cope with the traumatic experience, the accused is not punished,” the report says.
According to the Montreal Gazette, the death of Nova Scotia teen Rehtaeh Parsons also influenced Sheldon to go public.
“I chose to speak up because Rehtaeh Parsons was one death too many,” Sheldon said. “I want to be able to give a voice to rape survivors.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Sarelle Sheldon
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