Twitter Fatima Never Again Shaved Head

She is now 41. Fatima (not her existent name) was a married, heart-anile adult female with 2 sons at the time. A dedicated political activist to the crusade of her party in the fight to end dictatorship in The Republic of the gambia. After narrating her arrest, detention and rape to her husband, she got divorced and blamed for what she endured at the hands of law enforcement.

Her younger son, then only five, died from asthma. She continues to exist steadfast as a single parent. To her, the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Committee'due south search for truth and forging reconciliation would not exist consummate until perpetrators of such crimes in national uniforms are purged from service and brought to justice.

"The worst feeling is that I proceed to suffer psychological trauma from this experience. I am still nether medical treatment for spinal problems due to billy beatings, boot from hard boots and falling over and over while they crush me up similar a thing or an animal and I was seeking to run away for safety," she narrated when our reporter visited her house over the weekend.

How information technology happened

In 2016, Solo Sandeng led a group of political activists to March for electoral reforms in The Gambia. They were met with savage force. Arrested, beaten, resulting in his expiry. Two days later, his political party leader also led a peaceful march demanding Solo's torso, dead or alive.

Again, they were met with forcefulness. A lot of the top party executive members, comprising many old aged politicians, got arrested, browbeaten, injured and charged with various crimes.

On this fateful day, Fatima was among the protestors, demanding Solo's body from NIA custody. After a clash around the Africell-Comium vicinity along Kairaba Artery, she as well got arrested and put into the dorsum of a choice-up car with other women.

"Our political party leader gave instructions for all to stay behind him and the executive members, so that when shots are fired, he would be the first victim. We marched on and chanted our demands when a truck total of armed Police Intervention Personnel came upon united states. They fired tear gas at us from all corners, while others randomly beat the states with batons and gun butts. I fled merely I was caught," she narrated.

On this day, she got lucky and was able to jump out and run for embrace while others were rounded up and the vehicle was left unguarded.

"What shocked me even more was seeing Baa Ousainou beingness gun-butted on his head, claret dripping downwards his trunk…My center melted with acrimony at the same fourth dimension; my desire for fighting to the end had raised fifty-fifty more. His peers similar Dibba, Jammeh, Peters and other youths like Hon Lamin S Darboe, all suffered the same fate. It was The Republic of the gambia that made u.s. hazard it all," she said, as her vox trembled.

Fatima seemed broken but she is certainly not the giving upward type as she explained her story, seated on the sofa in her living room just before the pause of fast.

"How did you get raped?"

Fatima never granted an interview to speak almost this. It's a taboo in The Gambian culture to hash out sex activity openly, talk less of your rape experiences. She took comfort in knowing that it would be an end to an ear of oppression, dictatorship and abuse.

"What's at stake was not the freedom of our leaders alone. It was the decease of our struggle for freedom from Jammeh; the triumph of our party over dictatorship. It took us twenty years to reach there," she recalled with a dint of pride in her face as she smiled.

When Ousainou Darboe and UDP executive members were charged by the state for that peaceful march as a crime, information technology was under a law enacted past the colonial British government in the 1940s that became fifty-fifty strengthened past former dictator Jammeh.

In the 2d Commonwealth in The Gambia, the regime had the same objectives: crush dissent, impose order on the masses and throw outspoken opponents in prison. Jammeh turned out to be worse than the colonialists in this instance.

The ensuing trials gave nascence to a new revolution organised, headed and driven by women. This was the Kalama (calabash) revolution. Fatima, again, goes to courtroom, each sitting to show solidarity with their leaders. Security was ordinarily tight at the courts and around Banjul. Even so, they were undeterred; their solidarity with their leaders was needed. Another clash would occur.

On another of those trial days, there was a clash with PIU guards at the Court premises: "They were deterring us from entering the premises. They had put up metal bars to keep u.s.a. at bay. When one of our old-aged supporters got his leg broken after he was pushed past a PIU baby-sit, reactions were tense. Fighting almost ensued between us and the guards. A female person PIU officer besides broke her leg in the clash," she narrated.

This gave rise to another deadfall confronting the women as she alleged that PIU guards laid in wait at the Kanifing barracks when news of the disharmonism reached them. They were armed in anarchism gears waiting for the women equally they marched from Banjul to Westfield on foot.

"Before nosotros knew, troops were dispatched against united states of america and we were beingness beaten with batons, gun butts and kicked with boots. We ran for safety and I fell. I cried for help every bit nosotros received multiple baton beatings all around our bodies," she recalled, adding that she got arrested this time and taken into custody.

"At night, they came and took four of us away… one after the other. They wore ski-masks and we did not know their identities. We never saw their faces except commands and threats to subdue me into submission. I fought and screamed with all my energy. I was helpless and cried simply tears would not save me. I just laid there and looked at the ceiling…."

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Source: https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/we-were-raped-in-piu-custody-kalama-revolution-survivor-breaks-silence-after-5-years