“I was raped and abducted, but found my voice”_ Hafsat Muhammed
An independent multi-media journalist and activist Hafsat Maina Muhammed was a virtual guest Friday on an independent private television following a heart-rending video call between two ladies that went viral at the weekend.
One of the ladies in the video is Hafsat Maina Muhammed who narrates her ordeal at the hands of Boko Haram terrorists. She speaks of the horrors of her abduction and rape multiple times, sustained by threats that forced her to relocate to the US now residing in Prince George’s County in Maryland.
A married mother of six children and an indigene of Gwoza Local Government Area in Borno State recounted the circumstance that led to the ugly incident. She said: I heard a young girl scream. A 9-year-old screamed from a nearby uncompleted building. She ran but was caught by another group of Boko Haram. They were about 6 of them. I took the bull by the horn and trailed them to the uncompleted building. I asked her to run in Hausa and they grabbed me, took turns to rape me. I lied there in the uncompleted building bleeding, wounded, injured. The next day I was rescued and taken to the hospital.
Already I am being stigmatised because of what I do so I kept quiet in order not to be further stigmatised. After the incident of 2015, I was stoked by Boko Haram making the second time after2013. I have been threatened severally with death. The Nigerian Police in Abuja treated my complaint lightly. This unsavory response kickstarted the process for my relocation to the United States.
Muhammed said the Foundation of Choice for Peace, Gender, and Development was birth not only as a result of her ugly encounters but as well the several degrading encounters of women in society. The platform is gathering data on these untoward crimes against girls and women to draw the attention of the Nigerian government and the international community.
She said the Foundation is to help women and girls in this low state find their voices and get their lives back. There is the VAP law in the US where refugees can seek protection and live in the US. ” I am talking about refugees around the world. I am the only Hausa person from Northern Nigeria that have sought refuge to stay in the US. i am calling on women to seek refuge. I know a lot of women who committed suicide and died. Nigeria is not providing help for victims.”
She said the Nigerian government lacks accountability. “Nigerians have no right to hold their representatives accountable. Because of stigmatisation, victims cannot speak out. Abduction and rape victims need to speak up because there is power in their voices. Speak up to get help. When you say something you don’t know where help can come from. There is leverage on the internet, seek help. I am here because I studied, researched, and got help. I was studying, spoke up got help without paying a dollar. Why don’t we have a voice? Why can’t we protest peacefully when we are uncomfortable with happenings.”
The activist said, “what inspired her to put up the video is that she connected with the 13-year-old girl who got shot in her mouth upon screaming when her parents were shot by bandits. The girl is still laying in the hospital helpless and abandoned by her relatives. She is being stigmatised for being shot. I got connected because at the age of 13, I was molested not by Boko Haram but by a family member. I guess it’s been a back-to-back experience for me to be molested, raped, and beaten by my ex-husband. I guess this is where we need to have a common ground of what to live for. Trauma healing is one day at a time. It is a dance, not like a light switch.
Her response when cued of the recent comment by the Information and Culture Minister that security is not that bad as it was in 2015, was that of resentment. ” we see it happening every day in Kaduna and other parts in the North. What is he talking about? If 42 children can be burnt alive in Sokoto, how do you tell me it is not that bad. Is it because you have the luxury of seating in the comfort of your house and traveling abroad that makes you say it is not that bad”, she quipped.
Before her abduction, Hafsat worked as a full-time journalist in Kano for Pyramid FM, Liberty Radio and T.V, FRCN Kaduna, and Freedom Radio Jigawa State. Hafsat was forced to flee Nigeria for the United States after her release from captivity and she worked briefly for the Voice of America Washington D.C.
Today, like a few women in northern Nigeria, she has decided to speak out to bring attention to the horrendous crimes being perpetrated against women and children in her region, in the hope that government and the international community take decisive action to end the onslaught.