By Samar Shaheen
\nIt was the first time he had met her... as she trembled with fear whenever he came near her... until she looked like a slaughtered bird dancing from the severity of the pain. For a moment it seemed to me that this child, not yet past fourteen years of age, might leave this world with no return before I could offer her a greeting. But I chose to come closer, although the scene was harsh and painful, perhaps for the child more than for me, for her tears increased the anguish of the meeting and whetted my appetite to listen to her, while in return she was being muzzled. But the story began and the hidden was uncovered about such a horrifying crime, whose first cause is the absence of upbringing and the distance from religious teachings, while the second cause is the sick souls that made everything permissible, even assaulting the closest of those close to them.
\nShe sat with her small trembling body beside me, her voice failing her many times before she was able to speak and say: \"The beginning of the story was a little after midnight, when that person called 'my brother', who is two years older than me and perhaps a few days more, came. At that moment I was deep in sleep near the door of the room and the rest of my brothers and sisters inside it, wearing a 'skirt', trousers and a shirt - it was winter - and I felt that something was trying to strangle me, and when I opened my eyes there he was, and I said to him: what are you doing? But he was stronger than me, and he set about gagging me with a piece of cloth and tying me with a rope, while I was in a state of shock and bewilderment. I did not realise at that moment what my brother had done; I did not understand what had befallen me. I thought nothing had happened, but alas, the beast lurking inside him was stronger than his humanity.\" Thus \"Warda\" - a name I chose for her because she was a rose that death struck before she could see the light - told me her story from inside the cells of Gaza prison.
\nThere is no doubt that the severity of the psychological effects on women who have been subjected to sexual assault, particularly in their childhood, is greater if the assault is by someone trusted and close to the victim.
\nGod Almighty enjoined the maintaining of kinship ties, compassion towards women and doing all that is good for one's relatives, and there were noble injunctions in all the divine books. But that honour should be violated and what is forbidden should be assaulted, this is beyond what any human being can bear.
\nIncest is defined legally as any sexual abuse committed against a minor at the hands of a member of their family or their relatives. It is also defined as the killing of the soul, because the assailant in this case is the one who is supposed to secure the child's protection and the family's care.
\nThe penal code in the Arab world classifies this crime under the heading of crimes against family decency, and it requires, in order to pursue and prosecute the offender, the submission of a complaint by the victim or one of the relatives, except in the case of a scandal occurring, where the pursuit begins without the need to submit a complaint.
\nPerhaps Warda's story is one of hundreds of stories that have remained prisoners of the walls, and the victim is the woman in every case, her only fault being that if she speaks the family will be branded with the mark of shame, and therefore killing her or marrying her off to someone older than her grandfather is the solution.
\nWhispering about it, incest, by the bodies concerned, official or otherwise, whether out of a motive to minimise its scale or out of excessively reserved considerations aimed at preserving the ideal of the general image, and keeping the discussion within the framework of a murmur, will lead to keeping the victim mute, wrapping herself in silence, believing that she is the only one among God's creation singled out with the problem.
\nWe cannot set ourselves up as judges or arbiters over this foul criminal and those like him, and we have never said that the brow of the world should sweat with shame for this crime. Rather the world should feel disgust and nausea at the enormity of this crime. And the question raised here: is incest, and the story of (Warda), the only one in our society?! And what is the scale of this crime?
\nWomen are those whom the Lord of creation enjoined to be treated well. So we must delight greatly in showing them mercy, in being compassionate towards them, in bringing them good and in keeping evil and harm away from them. How beautiful it is for the father and the uncle to delight as he marries his daughter to a man she accepts and loves, and how beautiful a moment it is when the maternal uncle hands his sister's daughter to her bridegroom?! So how can the closest of people slaughter their daughter by rape without any fault?! And why?!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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