Darfur Survival Campaign
Sudan Journal
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"My life was taken"
Day 4: Sunday morning, July 16
In the afternoon, we organize the much awaited role plays. We have two groups – one will present a torture case coming before a doctor; the other, a case of sexual violence. Then both groups will role play the court session with prosecuting and defense attorneys, judges, victims and physicians presenting medical evidence. We have chosen Maryam who works for a development organization and has experience with several NGOs, and seems to be passionate about the issues of sexual violence and has been very outspoken so far. With her is another woman who works as a social worker and turns out to be Salih Mahmoud's sister. The two will play the rape survivors. A social worker with MSF who works in the Kalma camp will play the role of the doctor. We do two scenes, first with the doctor interviewing one of the victims and then with one of the victims facing her perpetrator in court.
The scene with the victims and the doctor is extraordinary: sitting out under a tree, our whole group is riveted by the realistic drama acted with deep conviction by these women. She will not tell the doctor she has been raped. He has no skills to talk to her, and she is too ashamed or embarrassed to look at him. In the room with the gentle, soothing female social worker, she uses a euphemism to describe the rape. "My life was taken," she says at one point. "They made me lie down," she says at another. She is wailing uncontrollably. They don't want to fill out form eight because they are afraid of the military. But after the third or fourth visit, they get the form and decide to go forward with prosecution. By the end, half of us are crying. Some of the men are laughing, because they don't know what else to do, but you can see in their faces that the presentation is stunning and revealing.
Then in the court scene she faces the alleged perpetrator and provides her testimony, and shouts insults at him. The audience applauds. More laughter, but the point is made that this woman has won no matter what the verdict is. Not every rape survivor may be as tough or articulate as Maryam, but she most certainly must represent some portion of women who will take the opportunity for their day in court, no matter how imperfect the system. The medical evidence is presented. It's pretty weak. The judge asks a lot of tricky questions. How can she prove that this man was the rapist? Maybe she is mistaken. What is the physical proof of the attack? Two eyewitnesses--mother and sister are called. But the verdict is "not guilty." The women--both actors in the drama and all the women in the "audience" are crestfallen. Some of the men laugh. This time it is disconcerting. Perhaps they identify with the male defendant, their gender identity taking over. There is much to ponder here.
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