In the wake of last year's horrific gang-rape in India, I revisited my own experience. Now, I feel lucky I can put it behind me
The World Health Organization recently came out with the first global survey (pdf) of sexual violence. It's a grim picture: many millions of women have been raped, by strangers as well as the men closest to them. At the same time, suddenly, after a few millennia of studied silence, rape in India is a hot topic. The protests after last December's rape and murder have led to an amazing moment of awakening for my country, which awaits the impending verdict for one of the accused men. For me, it's been a surreal six months.
On New Year's Eve, I got an innocuous-looking email from a friend in Delhi, with "This making the rounds on Facebook" in the subject line. I scrolled down, and saw my own teenage face on the screen next to a screaming headline.
After I was gang-raped in India, I wrote about it in a women's magazine (pdf). That was more than 30 years ago. Time went on, life went on. Then came the internet, the December rape, and suddenly the old article was everywhere. I was all over Facebook, and I don't even have a Facebook page.
I was suddenly not a writer, not a mother, not an ordinary, muddled, rather happy soul, but apparently, The World's Most Famous Living Rape Victim. I didn't want my 17-year-old's cry of rage in the women's magazine to be my final word on the subject, so I wrote an op-ed on the recovery process, and the stupidity of equating rape with dishonour, for the New York Times. Then, all hell really broke loose.
In the first month alone, my website got more than 2m hits. I got several thousand emails from women and men all over the world. I have been so very touched by the global outpouring of support.
Hats off to you, madam, they said. You are so brave. You are one helluva tough cookie. You are a saint. You are a hero. Please help me. Please be my friend. My husband beats me, my cousin rapes me, I never told anyone. Hats off. Heads off to you, said one particularly eager soul. University students debated my piece. The Indian government quoted me. Media called, institutions called. Everyone wanted to hear more. But I was done telling my story, so, Bartleby-like, I wrote back, "I prefer not to."
I chose to speak out the first time. The second time, it really didn't feel like a choice. It was surreal how big it got, and how quickly. Almost all my relationships have been given a good, bone-rattling shaking. Everyone seemed to have read the piece, and everyone had a reaction. My immediate family shone like stars. My extended family buried their heads in the sand.
Some people cheered, and some looked away in embarrassment. Some people said truly nasty things. (Rape is like any other life-shattering event – no matter how hard you try, you remember how every person reacted to it, and you either love them forever or you spend the rest of your life not quite succeeding in forgiving them.) My 11-year-old daughter, whom we hastily told before she heard about it at school, nodded casually. She saw her normal goofy mother and wisely decided everything was all right. And it was, and it is.
So why do I feel like bolting for the street when I walk into a sandwich place and the guy behind the counter, a total stranger, says, "I saw you on Facebook!"?
It's not shame or guilt, it's not embarrassment – truly, it's slightly befuddling. The rape was catastrophic, and it took many years to feel safe (a necessary delusion). But I'm at the other end of that now, and I don't quite know what to do when a friend who didn't know this about me starts weeping. It's good to be loved, but I'm done weeping. At this moment, my daughter's maths progress feels more important than revisiting three-decades-old emotions.
So, here is my main point: I feel incredibly lucky that my rape story feels old. Millions – yes, millions– of women don't have that luxury. A new study found that victims of conflict-related rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo benefited significantly from group therapy, and talking about their experiences. Imagine that. No matter how awful it was, it helps to talk about it. Feminists, therapists, journalists, this-ists and that-ists, all agree that we need to talk about it.
But we don't. I recently spoke to a group of 250 Indian women. Afterwards, one woman said, "If my daughter got raped, I would never broadcast it to the world!"
I wish I could treat it like any other piece of writing. I wish I had felt comfortable boasting about my op-ed to the woman on the plane who asked what I do. But it's about rape, and no matter how that should be like any other trauma, it's not – for no earthly reason other than that we have made it so. I didn't want to deal with her reaction, so I didn't tell her. When the sandwich guy says he saw me on Facebook, or someone I barely know hugs me on the street, I feel a bit like I'm in one of those dreams where you show up to an important interview, your teeth fall out, and everyone stares.
I'm glad I spoke up. I understand and respect those who cannot. I've moved on. I want to be known for my work, for my charm or lack thereof, for my perfect cup of tea, for more than simply living to tell the tale.