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Toufah
Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement | Toufah Jallow, Kim Pittaway
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The powerful story of Toufah Jallow, a brilliant and inspiring young woman who, after she was forced to flee her home in The Gambia, bravely bucked taboo and named herself as a survivor of a sexual assault by the country's dictator--launching an unprecedented protest movement. In 2015, Toufah Jallow was the 19-year-old daughter of the second wife in her Muslim father's polygamous household. Her mother, outwardly conforming, saw to it thar her daughter received an education and was able to pursue her own ambitions. Dreaming of a scholarship, Toufah entered a presidential competition purportedly designed to identify the country's smart young women and support their educational and career goals. Toufah won. Yahya Jammeh, the dictator who had ruled The Gambia all of Toufah's life, styled himself as a pious yet progressive protector of women. At first he behaved in a fatherly fashion toward Toufah, but then proposed marriage, and she turned him down. On a pretext, his female cousin then lured Toufah to the palace, where he drugged and raped her. Toufah could not tell anyone. There was literally no word for rape in her native language. If she told her parents, they would take action, and incur Jammeh's wrath. Wearing a niqab to hide her identity, she gave Jammeh's security operatives the slip and fled to Senegal. Her route to safety in Canada is full of close calls and intrigue. 18 months after Jammeh was deposed, Toufah Jallow became the first woman in The Gambia to make a public accusation of rape against him, sparking marches of support and a social media outpouring of shared stories among West African women under #IAmToufah, setting her on the path to reclaiming the future of personal growth and education that Jammeh had tried to steal from her, a future also of leadership and advocacy for survivors of sexual violence, especially in heavily patriarchal countries lacking resources and laws to protect women and even the language with which to speak openly about sexual threats and violence.
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Toufah Jallow won a scholarship contest in her country that was supposed to be her pathway to an education and a better life. The President/Dictator of The Gambia took an interest in her and when she rejected his advances, raped and humiliated her. As a teenager she fled the country, and in just a few years transformed herself into an activist for women's rights in her country and beyond.↘️

ReadingEnvy She gets referred to as inspiring "West Africa's metoo movement," but I think the truth is more startling because of the lack of conversation and understanding in The Gambia. Toufah explains how there are no words in three languages foe.the act. There were no support services for victims/survivors of sexual assault, and previous victims of the President/Dictator risked their lives and the lives and livelihoods of their families if they spoke up.↘️ 2y
ReadingEnvy The conservative community from which she came also had a pretty firm unspoken agreement that such topics are not discussed, and demonstrate in other ways (arranged marriage etc) that women do not have bodily autonomy. ↘️ 2y
ReadingEnvy In 2008, the UN started redefining rape as an act of war, and you can see that rhetoric here, but she also points out how courts are still demanding higher forms of proof when accusing someone of rape than of other war crimes (a section on the word "alleged" is quite powerful.)↘️ 2y
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ReadingEnvy I also didn't know of the political turmoil in The Gambia in the last five years, despite having read two novels set there during that time. Toufah's story probably could only have happened during this particular upheaval, although I believe she would have fought for women even if she couldn't have returned home. 2y
TheKidUpstairs Should that say "when she rejected his advances"? 2y
ReadingEnvy @TheKidUpstairs yes! Geez sorry fixing 2y
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Humanity needs to continue to understand so we can support each other through the tough times, no matter our race, so we can change for the better.

— “The powerful story of Toufah Jallow, a brilliant and inspiring young woman who, after she was forced to flee her home in The Gambia, bravely bucked taboo and named herself as a survivor of a sexual assault by the country‘s dictator—launching an unprecedented protest movement.”

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks ❤️❤️❤️ 3y
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