My bf regularly slaps and hits me when he loses his temper. The last time he did this he gave me a black eye and when i went to the hospital they said i was concussed. He is always sorry and loving afterwards but i don't think i can carry on with him as i'm always scared when he loses his temper.

I've always been shy and awkward with boys and boys at my school know this. Unfortunately i started my periods early and my bust blossomed to a D cup. Normally boys at school snigger and make remarks about my bust size when i walk past. On this particular day it was end of term and at the end of the school day when almost everyone had left. A boy from my class followed me in to the girls rest room, when i turned round he said he liked me and wanted to kiss me. I told him i wasn't interested and to get out. He unzipped his pants and took out his penis and said ' think about me tonight '. I got embarrassed and ran out.

A corrections officer has taken a liking to me after i was sentenced for a DUI. It's my first time in prison. He made it clear that he can make my life easier if i give him what he wants. He allows me in to a quiet area each day/night when he is on duty and i have to give him a blow job. He now looks out for me and gives me treats.

When i come in to class room at lunch break there is no teacher around. A group of about 6 boys have started to surround me then start groping me, touching my breasts and ass and trying to unhook my bra strap. They seem to think it's funny, so i stay away from classroom at lunchtimes.

My older brother is close to me but lately i can see he is aroused when i come out of the bathroom after a shower. Last week he when just he and i were in alone at home, he waited for me to come out of the shower then pulled my towel away leaving me exposed. He then pinned me against a wall and tried to kiss me.

A boy in my class at school has been waiting for me to go to the rest rooms, then a few mins later following knowing i must be the only one in a locked cubicle. He climbs up and looks over to make sure it's me then orders me to unlock the door or he'll climb over. Once I've unlocked the door  he comes in and asks me very personal questions about masturbation, the starts to touch me and force me to do stuff to him. I'm naturally shy so i think he takes advantage of that. It's now a daily occurrance. Does this mean i'm gay?

I think it's because when i had my first child my then husband who was twice my age. He was very abusive and controlling, and often raped in a matter of fact way it was common place . He forced me to nurse my 3 children up until they went to school aged 5 yrs. English isn't my first language, i'm originally from Italy. When i put my son to bed at night, my then husband would take over and feed until we both went to bed.

This would happen every single night, this caused my breasts to become over filled with milk by the morning, then it would start all over gain. same happened with my second child, so i had 10 years of continuously producing milk. So any touching or brushing against my chest area set off milk flow. Before i left him he told me that he knew this would happen, and that's why he did it. When i met him i was a naive lg.

He degraded and humiliated me and made me do things a nice young woman should not do. In the last year of our relationship he would have his friends come by the house and ' accidently ' brush against my chest, knowing my milk would start to flow. He took money from them and they would help him handcuff my hands behind my back and put me in a neck brace against wall so i couldn't bend forward, then rip my blouse and bra away from me exposing my breasts.

Then he allowed those who paid , to fondle and suckle my milk as i stood there helpless. they would also kneel and interfere with me. I eventually had enough courage to leave him, but to this day if my chest is brushed against milk flows out of me continuously for hours. Same with my vulva. It's ruined my life because any potential bf i meet who genuinely just comes in to contact with my chest area, sees the wet outlines caused by the start of milk production, and just assumes i'm really horny and want sex. I've been for a consultation with a doctor who said if i had botox it could stop the milk coming, but it's expensive and i'm not happy about having surgery.

I read a post from another girl here recently, describing how she was raped by a man from Fetlife. She was drugged, beaten and used against her will for hours in a hotel room.

She concluded by saying that she doesn’t want pity but was simply sharing this to say: “be careful, this can happen to you too.”

Well, it did happen to me.

I was in a little club just outside Aix. I talked to an older man who seemed nice, charming, witty and cultured. We drank and danced, and the he suggested we’d go for a walk, since it was such a nice, early summer evening.
I thought I could trust him, since we had a connection (or so I thought).
As soon as we were away from houses, he suddenly grabbed me and pushed me into a little field. He grabbed me and threw me on the ground and said if I screamed, he would beat me.
So, I didn’t. He beat me anyway, viciously.
When he was done, he just left me there.

I spend some time in the hospital, and when I went back home to my parents, they suggested I should accept an offer from an Art school in New York City, which came earlier that month.
It was thought that a change of scenery and being surrounded by people from a different culture might help me recover faster. We have friends and family in in the city, so it was agreed.

That was two years ago.
I have healed.
And recovered.
I have met a few men since. Their kindness, patience and understanding has allowed me to trust again, cautiously.

One man in particular introduced me to my submissive site. He showed me that I can be both vulnerable and safe at the same time, with the right person.
He encouraged me to go out there and explore my sexuality, as fearlessly and as energetically as possible. He said that otherwise, it will always belong to my attacker.

Anyway. Our relationship ended, like all things must.

Why am I sharing this?

To say: “be careful, this can happen to you too.”

And no. I don’t want your pity.
I survived this. On my own, yet with the help and grace of good people.

I grew up mostly in Japan, and did receive (like many young girls in Japan) offers of enjo-kōsai from older men.
It's basically the recognition (and acceptance) of the fact that young girls (above the age of consent) have things that old men want and that girls should be compensated in turn.
The Japanese are very practical about stuff like that and sex in general.
It's a transactional relationship that usually includes spending time with/going out with older men in exchange for money or luxury gifts.
It does NOT always include sex.
It has a long tradition in Japan but has become more controversial in recent years, as the country becomes more and more westernized, culturally.
I have done some enjo-kōsai, and some sex was involved.
Handjobs in cars, kissing, blowjobs and some fondling.
Sometimes we would just go to a karaoke bar, or for dinner in a nice restaurant.
It was exciting and enjoyable.
The men were grateful, polite, clean, very generous, and kind.
And there was no shame attached to any of it.
And I felt 100% in charge of the situation.
So there. Enjo-kōsai in 100 words or less

A boy at my school invited me to his house saying there was a party. When i got there it was just he and i. He said everyone else had cancelled so i said i didn't want to stay. His family were not home, he said lets listen to some music in his room. We went up and he put some music on and then tried to get me to drink something that was alcoholic  but i refused. He then tried to dance with me, pushing himself up against me as he also started to touch my breasts and tried to pull my underwear down. I slapped him across the face really hard and ran out. Had i not been so determined i would also have become a victim, survivor and statistic.

More than half of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. last year were recruited on Facebook,
bombshell report reveals
June 2021.
Federal Human Trafficking Report is released by the Human Trafficking Institute
Data showed 30 percent of sex trafficking cases since 2000 recruited online
In 2020, 59% took place on Facebook, rising to 65% when involving children
After Facebook, Instagram (also owned by Facebook) and Snapchat were the most frequently cited platforms in cases for recruiting child victims last year
The report also notes that stores and cults as key targets for human traffickers.

The majority of online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases last year occurred on Facebook, according to a new report from the Human Trafficking Institute.

According to the 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report, 59 percent of all online sex trafficking recruitment in active cases occurred on Facebook. That number rose to 65 percent in active cases involving children.

The internet was the most common recruitment ground for human traffickers last year, making up 41 percent of active cases in 2020 - a rising trend since 2000.

'The internet has become the dominant tool that traffickers use to recruit victims, and they often recruit them on a number of very common social networking websites,' Human Trafficking Institute CEO Victor Boutros told CBSN on Wednesday.

'Facebook overwhelmingly is used by traffickers to recruit victims in active sex trafficking cases.'

The majority of online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases last year occurred on Facebook, according to a new report from the Human Trafficking Institute. Pictured: A man looks at a computer screen with a Facebook logo [stock photo].

'Surprisingly, despite Facebook’s reputation as a less popular platform among teenagers, it was a more common platform for recruiting child victims than adult victims in 2020 active sex trafficking cases,' the report says.

'In fact, 65 percent (68) of child victims recruited on social media were recruited through Facebook - compared to just 36 percent (10) of adults.'

Data presented in the report showed that 30 percent of all victims in the United States identified in federal sex trafficking cases in the past two decades - since 2000 - were recruited online.

In 2020, 59 percent of all online recruitment of identified victims in active cases took place on Facebook alone, according to the report, and 65 percent of identified child sex trafficking victims recruited on social media were recruited through Facebook.

Active cases included in the report cover those in which defendants were charged in 2020, those in which defendants were charged in previous years with charges still pending last year, or in which the cases were on appeal.

In a statement to CBS News, Facebook said: 'Sex trafficking and child exploitation are abhorrent and we don't allow them on Facebook.

'We have policies and technology to prevent these types of abuses and take down any content that violates our rules.'

'We also work with safety groups, anti-trafficking organizations and other technology companies to address this and we report all apparent instances of child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,' it added.

In 2020 in the United States, 59 percent of all online recruitment of identified victims in active cases took place on Facebook alone, according to the report, and 65 percent of identified child sex trafficking victims recruited on social media were recruited through Facebook. Pictured: Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks in 2018.

The annual report from the institute uses data from every active federal criminal and civil human trafficking case over the last year, but the 2020 report featured an expanded scope, coming 20 years after the government enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000

After Facebook, Instagram (owned by Facebook Inc.) and Snapchat were the most frequently cited platforms for recruiting child victims in 2020, the report states.

When it comes to adult victims, WeChat and Instagram followed Facebook.

The annual report from the institute uses data from every active federal criminal and civil human trafficking case over the last year, but the 2020 report featured an expanded scope, coming 20 years after the government enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000.

'This report actually looks at the last 20 years of trends in the federal government,' Boutros told CBS.

'We learned about victims, they are overwhelmingly women and children. So 50 percent of the victims are children, and a large majority are women. So 44 percent are women, and 50 percent girls.'

While the internet has been the most common recruitment ground for human traffickers since 2013 - including in 41 percent of active cases in 2020 - the report also notes that stores and cults as key targets of the criminals.

'The internet has become the dominant tool that traffickers use to recruit victims, and they often recruit them on a number of very common social networking websites,'

In the report, researchers also say that the trends seen in the report reflect the DOJ's methods of tracking down cases of human trafficking.

'These data do not reflect the prevalence of online solicitation in sex trafficking schemes beyond those federally prosecuted,' the report states.

'To be sure, the internet is implicated in many sex trafficking situations, but the high numbers of federal prosecutions involving internet solicitation are equally if not more reflective of the strategies law enforcement use to investigate these crimes.'

Act now or face 100 more years of child marriage, economists warn.

By Isabelle Gerretsen

LONDON, Dec 7 2018 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It will take 100 years to end child marriage if current trends continue, economists warned on Friday, urging governments to spend more on tackling a problem that affects 12 million girls every year.

A study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found global rates of child marriage were declining so slowly the world would miss a target of eradicating the practice by 2030 by many decades.

It will also miss a goal of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) by that date, the OECD said in its Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI).

"Progress in eliminating both practices is too slow as people, including women sometimes, are not ready to abandon them," the OECD said in a statement emailed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Raising awareness should be a key priority of gender-sensitive policies."

Researchers said governments in affected countries needed to do more to change the social attitudes that favour FGM and child marriage.

In Burkina Faso, for example, 44 percent of the population thinks a girl should be married before she is 18.

"To make real progress on this issue we need to address its root cause," said Lakshmi Sundaram, executive director of campaign group Girls Not Brides.

"We need to change social norms, to address head-on the belief that girls are not as valuable as boys, and that their only role in society is to become wives and mothers."

The SIGI assesses the impact of discriminatory laws, social norms and practices on the lives of women and girls in 180 countries, using 2017 data from national surveys and local legal experts.

It found 39 percent of women suffered FGM in 29 countries in Africa and Asia and 23 percent believe the practice should continue.

FGM, which affects an estimated 200 million girls worldwide, involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and can cause chronic pain, menstrual problems and infertility. Some girls bleed to death or die from infections.

However Julia Lalla-Maharajh, founder of the Orchid Project, said significant progress had been made in stopping FGM.

"We know that girls are a third less likely to be cut now than they were 30 years ago," she said.

In West Africa, more than 8,500 villages have abandoned both FGM and child marriage due to efforts of grassroots initiatives, she added.

More government funding should go towards grassroots organisations working to end child marriage and empowering survivors to speak up, campaigners said.

" are busting the myths within their communities around why girls must be cut," said Shelby Quast, Americas director of campaign group Equality Now.

"As communities learn that FGM is not a religious requirement, that there is no health benefit, only lifelong harm, they are beginning to change."

(Reporting by Isabelle Gerretsen @izzygerretsen; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Your Allegations Comment:
Conveniently there is No mention in the above article by our learned economists, of the states in the USA that allow child brides to marry aged under sixteen years of age. Must be a Freudian slip.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

REVEALED: The shocking plight of America's child brides aged as young as 13 who have been forced to marry their attackers - which helps their abusers escape justice under archaic laws

·         Donna Pollard was just 16 when she was forced to marry Kentucky child abuser

·         He had first raped her when she was just 14 years old, devastating her childhood

·         Judy Wiegand was just 13 when she was forced to marry the man who raped her

·         Glenda Welp forced to marry her violent neighbour when she was aged just 14

By IAN BIRRELL IN KENTUCKY FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 22:03, 1 September 2018 | UPDATED: 13:11, 2 September 2018

Donna Pollard had only just turned 16 when she stood in a Kentucky state court house with a serial paedophile who had used his position of trust to groom and repeatedly rape her over the previous two years.

Her abuser, smartly dressed in a dark suit and blue tie, was not cuffed or restrained in any way. For he was not facing any charges for the hideous crimes that devastated a fragile girl’s life from the age of 14.

Incredibly, he was in court to marry his victim – with the full consent of Donna’s mother and under the authority of a state that not only sanctioned child marriage but turned a blind eye as abused children are forced into wedlock with their attackers.

Indeed, that very act of matrimony helped Donna’s abuser, a mental health counsellor almost twice her age, evade charges for statutory rape under laws that only applied to younger victims and could have put him behind bars for many years.

I am appalled the law could allow such a thing,’ Donna told me. ‘Laws are supposed to protect victims, not the people who exploit them. Instead my life was ripped apart by a paedophile who took advantage of our marriage laws.’

Yet her terrible and tragic tale is far from unique. I spoke to several other Kentucky women who told me similar heart-rending stories of being abused as teenagers and then forced to marry their attackers. One was just 13 and pregnant when made to marry her rapist.

And there are thousands more of these disturbing cases scattered across the United States, a few involving girls not yet into their teens when forced into matrimony.

Some hail from religious communities, some from poor rural areas, some from prosperous cities.

This is the legacy of archaic laws and outdated views on teenage pregnancy.

Astonishingly, child marriage is still sanctioned in much of the United States – and some conservative politicians and libertarian activists fight to protect the practice.

Although data is incomplete, one study found that, during the first 15 years of this century, at least 207,459 minors – legally defined as those under 18 – were allowed to marry.

Almost all were girls, and most were aged 16 and 17 – but 12-year-olds received permits in three states and 13-year-olds in 14 states, including Kentucky.

In Alabama, a 74-year-old man was given a licence to marry a 14-year-old girl – yet, as in many other cases including Donna’s, this relationship would have led to a statutory rape charge and being placed on the sex offenders register had it occurred outside marriage.

Kentucky had the third-highest number of US child marriages, with 11,000 being permitted since 2000. But thanks to the efforts of Donna – who was one of those cases – a new law signed last month bans unions for people under 18 – although 17-year-olds can marry if they meet strict restrictions.

Donna’s story is horrific, although ultimately inspiring. Her father, a long-distance lorry driver, was loving but often away with work. He already had two children when, at 17, he married Donna’s mother, who was just 13 at the time and later suffered mental health problems.

Her mother was cold and violent, frequently beating her with a stick. When Donna was 13, her father died and soon after she began to fight back when attacked by her mother. As a result, she was sent to see a psychologist and ended up in a special behavioural unit for five weeks.

There, the vulnerable, lonely girl was seized upon by a 29-year-old counsellor. ‘He was very nice to me, very compassionate, making me feel special with lots of attention,’ said Donna. ‘I just wanted to please him because I wanted someone to be kind to me.’

Soon they were having secret meetings, hugs and finally sex – although she was just 14. After Donna’s release, incredibly, her own mother drove her weekly to a hotel to carry on the relationship. ‘She saw him as an exit card, a way to relieve the burden of me.’

Shortly after Donna’s 16th birthday, the counsellor’s own mother discovered what was going on and threatened to tell the police. The man whipped out a gun, threatened to kill himself, then turned it on his mother and drove her out of the house.

Within days, Donna and her abuser were before a court clerk, who did not even look up from her computer when asking who was the minor. Donna’s mother and the official signed a licence – and the troubled teenager was taken straight off to be married by a preacher to a paedophile.

Her school turned her away, so Donna lost a precious scholarship and her education was stymied. She was pregnant at 17, yet her controlling and violent husband forced her to work in a strip club, making her hand over wages and procure him drugs and girls.

She determined to flee after seeing her infant daughter laugh – thinking they were playing a game – while she was being throttled on the ground by her husband. ‘I went to a domestic violence centre,’ said Donna. ‘But they turned me away since I was under 18 and a minor.’

She finally escaped at 19. Remarkably, she went on to college and obtained a degree a few years later, but kept her abuse and marriage hidden even from friends while struggling with serious psychological damage, including depression and severe anxiety.

Two years ago, aged 32 and working as a health care manager, Donna decided to find out if other women had suffered similar situations and ended up talking with Jeanne Smoot from the Tahirih Justice Center, which opposes gender-based violence. ‘I told her my goal was to change the law in my home state,’ she said.

Smoot, senior counsel with the TJC, argues such cases show the urgent need for reform across the country. ‘The state is failing to recognise child abuse,’ she said. ‘These laws are the vestige of antiquated and misguided assumptions of what is in a girl’s best interests.’

Smoot added that many terrified victims went to courts desperately hoping they would be saved by officials, only to find their trauma intensifying.

‘One girl told me she was crying, which the court clerk interpreted as jitters and told her it should be the happiest day of her life.’

The Kentucky reform was promoted by Republican state senator Julie Adams, who said she was astounded when she met Donna last autumn.

‘My jaw was on the floor as she was telling her story,’ she said. ‘It was mind-boggling. I had no idea about child marriage.’

Yet when she raised the issue, Adams was stunned by the volume of emails and letters she received from women disclosing similar experiences.

‘As a society, we allowed this marginalisation of women to be legal. We had to connect our civil and criminal laws.’

The issue exposes great hypocrisy in a country that campaigns against child marriage around the world. ‘There’s no place in civilised society for the early or forced marriage of children,’ said Barack Obama when president.

He is right. Yet it only really emerged in the US when a few brave survivors such as Donna started telling their life stories in public to protect future generations from suffering similar fates.

Many women were suffering in silence, thinking their cases were unique. But since Donna set up a support group, called Survivors’ Corner, other women who have suffered similar experiences have come forward.

Delaware became the first state to outlaw all marriage of minors in May, despite claims it would lead to more abortions from one opponent. Several others – including Texas, which had most marriages of minors this century – have updated and strengthened their laws.

Yet 18 states still do not set an age floor, including Idaho, which has the highest rates of child marriage per head.

Seven states have laws that accept pregnancy as a reason to waive minimum age rules and only 13 require minors to get approval from a judge before they marry.

Reform has met resistance from some conservatives, including Albert Robinson, senator for the county where Donna lived when married.

‘When he spoke against the bill, it was as if he was saying it was OK my rape was legal in his county because I was married,’ she told me.

Robinson, a former sausage maker turned property dealer, told me he was opposed to government interference in family life. ‘The parents are the reason the child exists and I find it hard to believe any parents would force their child into marriage.

‘If the parents of the father-to-be and the pregnant girl can work things out, that’s a lot better than having an abortion,’ he added. ‘My wife’s mother married at 14 and she arrived a year later – and she’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.’

Robinson backs child marriage yet opposes marriage for gay and lesbian adults. He is not alone: in nearby Rowan county, which has permitted 92 minors to marry this century, the court clerk famously went to jail rather than issue wedding licences to same-sex couples.

Such arguments over parental rights angered Judy Wiegand, a paediatric therapist who suffered deeply as a naive 13-year-old forced to marry her 17-year-old rapist.

Wiegand never dared tell anyone about the assault at a roller skating rink, thinking she must have been partly to blame, but then became pregnant. ‘My father was very angry,’ she said. ‘But in my mind I thought I had broken the rules and put myself in a bad place.’

They lived in a religious, ultra-conservative rural community, so the pair’s mothers agreed their teenagers should marry. When they went to see the county clerk to get a permit, ‘she looked at me down her glasses like I was tainted and never spoke to me,’ said Wiegand.

She wore a yellow dress to get married, a slender girl weighing little more than five stone. ‘I still slept with a teddy bear and played with my Barbies. I just wanted it all to be over. There was a preacher but he did not really talk to me either.’

Her subsequent story echoed others I heard: she was badly abused, her schooling was stopped, she became quickly pregnant again, then left after the child was threatened.

Searching for security, she rebounded into another bad relationship before finally finding stability. ‘It was really hard to build a decent life,’ said Wiegand, now happily married. ‘I never had a first date, I never had a prom, I never graduated from school. I missed so much.’

Some of these unions were horrifically violent, such as that of Glenda Welp, who at 14 was made to marry a neighbour twice her age who beat her regularly. She suffered seizures after having a typewriter smashed on her head when eight-months pregnant. When she managed to escape, her husband came after her with a gun. ‘He said he was going to kill me, my baby and then himself.’

Fortunately Welp’s mother called the police. ‘He was just getting ready to shoot us when he heard the siren and ran off, but still tried taking the TV.’

Others were treated less violently but were still victims of paedophiles, such as Loretta Scott, a 38-year-old carer. She started being pursued aged just 12 by a man attending her Pentecostal church who befriended her family, then was forced to marry him by her parents three years later.

‘I cried myself to sleep,’ she said. ‘He stopped me going to school, which was where all my friends were, and did not want me around boys. One time my brother came to visit but was told not to come back. He wanted to control everything and everyone who spoke with me.’

After four years, she fled and later discovered her husband had married two other teenage girls. ‘It’s such a difficult thing to get over. I’ve never really talked about it with anyone,’ said Scott. ‘I have a girl of ten and I just can’t imagine sending her away.’

Sherry Johnson, a prominent campaigner in Florida, revealed she was married to her rapist at 11 after becoming pregnant.

Unsurprisingly, studies find child brides far more likely to suffer severe health, financial and educational difficulties throughout their lives than other women.

Ironically, they also fare worse than unmarried teenage mothers since they are far more likely to quickly have a second child, said Vivian Hamilton, a law professor who has testified before several state hearings on the issue.

Like so many others, Hamilton is stunned to find these practices still existing in the United States. ‘I don’t think God wants little girls marrying rapists,’ said one survivor to me.

‘It is so bizarre that this is still going on in this day and age.’

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

A boy i liked at school invited me to meet him at the local park at the weekend. I was really excited and went to meet him at the weekend. He must have planned it because he took me to a shaded area with lots of trees. He was 3 years older than me he put me up against a tree, then started to put his hands on me while kissing me. He squeezed my breasts hard and carried on kissing me even though i told him to stop many times. He slapped me hard across the face and told me to do as i was told. I could feel that he was excited, and he put his hand under my skirt and in to my panties. I was really upset and tried to make him stop, but he just kept on kissing me. When i was able to get him off me, i just pulled my underwear up and ran as fast as i could to get away. I still see him at school, he told his friends that he’s been inside me and wants to again. I felt so humiliated and have kept it to myself until now because i feel ashamed.

I had been having piano lessons that my mom thought would help me. My teacher was in his 40s, really nice and always helpful. I was 14 and i started to grow like a woman’s shape, i didn’t take much notice, but my piano teacher did. He started to become more interested in stuff other than the piano. I had never had a bf and had no experience of kissing boys. After several weeks of him teasing me and joking around, he asked me to come over to his place to hang out. I felt comfortable with him so agreed.  We drank some alcohol and i lost my usually reserved nature. He came over and said he really liked me. He held my hand and pressed up against me. I was scared but also excited that a man was interested in me. He started to walk me upstairs, and i said i didn’t want to, and told him i’d never had a bf b4. He said there are things i needed to know. When upstairs in his bedroom he asked me to sit on his lap, i was embarrassed as he started to touch me. No one had done that to me before. I started to feel scared of the unknown as i was a virgin. He put me at ease by kissing me, until i still said i didn’t want to do anything. He took my hand and put  his hand over mine, then put my hand on the outside of his trousers in the groin area.  We started to do stuff, It hurt so i started crying, he told me not to cry and carried on until he was finished. There was some blood but it had stopped hurting. This is the first time i have told this to anyone. I never went back for lessons, and didn’t even tell my mom.

Me and my sisters was bring from Mexico and tolde we can have job and get money. We paid our money to come to America but when we get here the only job is to clean and housekeep. We are doing these jobs but sir want more than our work he start to make us go to his room to do things that man and wife do. We  don’t know how to get out of this, only if we go back home. America was started by people who travel a long way from other country so why they hate us i don’t know.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain. july 2021

Spain's 19-year-old No.1 TikTok star faces 12 years in prison after bragging he tricked women into having unprotected sex.

Darrechi said he told sexual partners he was sterile to avoid wearing a condom
He made the comments in a YouTube interview and has since apologised
Spain's equalities minister said she has asked public prosecutor to investigate
Under a new bill greenlit by Cabinet, Darrechi could face up to 12 years in prison
The bill, commonly known as the 'Only Yes Is Yes' law reclassifies all non-consensual sex as rape, and is due to be debated by Parliament in September

A Spanish social media star could face 12 years in prison after bragging about tricking women into having sex without a condom.

Spain's equalities minister has asked prosecutors to investigate Naim Darrechi following the remarks made in a YouTube interview.

The 19-year-old is Spain's most popular TikTok user with 26.8million users on the app.
In the interview, Darrechi said he tricks sexual partners into having sex without a condom by telling them he is sterile.

The comment provoked outrage from girls and women, including minister Irene Montero, who noted that Darrechi's actions could constitute sexual abuse under current Spanish law.

Under a new law, such actions could be considered sexual assault under a new bill.

'Taking off a condom or ejaculating inside someone without consent is now sexual abuse and the #OnlyYesisYes law will recognise it as assault,' Montero wrote in a Twitter post referencing the bill.

'Bragging to 26million followers about something like this reflects the urgency of centering consent. We will inform the prosecutor's office.'

Darrechi later apologised on Instagram, writing: 'I'm really sorry... it's just crazy what I said.'

'I want to apologise, really. Sometimes I don't realise the responsibility that is mine...

'I made a comment that really is out of place and that is not right. Sometimes I say things and sometimes I exaggerate, but here it's just crazy what I said, I wish it had been cut at the edit and no one would ever have heard it.'

The comment came in an interview with Spanish YouTuber Mostopapi in which Darrechi stated: 'I find it difficult with a condom, so I never use one.'

He claimed that none of his sexual partners had gotten pregnant and said 'I started thinking that I had a problem.'

'So I tell them: "relax, I'm sterile." It's true,' Darrechi said, prompting a laugh from the interviewer.

Darrechi could face between one and 12 years in prison if convicted under the new bill, set to be debated by parliament in September, which reclassifies all non-consensual sex as rape. It does not come into effect until later this year.

The change to the criminal code followed intense public anger over light sentences given in a number of cases involving sexual crimes.

The most prominent example was the so-called 'Wolf Pack' case in which five men gang raped an 18-year-old woman in Pamplona in 2016.

Fury erupted after the men were first handed a lesser sentence for sexual abuse, rather than sexual assault.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain. july 2021

I have a job in an office, it started off really well. I had a good relationship with my married male boss but made the mistake of telling him I wasn't getting on with my husband. From that day onwards he started smacking my ass whenever we were on our own and I walked past him. I have a curvy figure with a large bust which he frequently commented on, it made me blush but i ignored it. He started to mention this when we were on our own and mentioned other sexual innuendos. I'm not someone who would raise their voice, I have a shy character/personality and not someone who complains. So when he asked me to work late one night i agreed. At one stage he cornered me and pressed up against me and started to kiss me on the mouth. I protested, but politely, he attempted it again and this time put his hand inside my blouse and bra and was attempting to kiss my breast. He then pulled me in to his private office. I protested but he ignored me. Within minutes he had laid me on the sofa chair and was trying to pull my underwear down, several minutes later i managed to run out. I said to myself I won't allow it to happen again, but he has persisted in pursuing me.  He says he just wants me once a week and threatened me not to tell anyone or he'll tell my husband that we are an item. My husband and I have become closer now so I'm in a dilemma about what to do.

My step brother is 4 years older than me, we get on really well but i've noticed a change this past year. When we were younger we used to play fight and sit on top of one another. We haven't done that for a few years, but he started it again about a month ago. I'm sure it's because he has started seeing me wearing bras and getting a young woman's shape. We recently had a play fight when there was just me and him at home. He overpowered me on the carpet, then i overpowered him and sat astride him. I could feel he had an erection and called him a perv. This made him angry and he overpower me again, this time with him on top of me. He held me by the wrists to the floor above my head and laid on top of me, i could feel he was still excited and shouted at him to get off. He said he wanted to do me, and that i was teasing him cos i wanted it. I've since tried to keep away from him and it has caused an atmosphere at home. I can't tell my parents because all hell would break loose.

I went home with a school friend after school she is mixed heritage (white mom, black dad) they are in their 40s. We went to her room and were doing girly stuff like make up and listening to music on headphones and goofing about. I told her i needed the loo, so went to use it. Just as i was walking along the landing to the bathroom, the bathroom door opened and her dad came out with no bath robe or towel. His manhood was exposed in front of me. Even though we were both embarrassed i couldn't take my eyes off it and must have been staring. He apologized but i couldn't unsee what was before me. There was an awkward silence as we passed each other. I still go to her house, whenever he sees me there he just winks at me. I always wonder if he deliberately orchestrated our 'meet' on the landing, as he knew i was in the house with his daughter, and i'm scared to think what would have happened if i'd been there on my own, as i used to go to her house and wait for her.

An older girl at my new school would regularly tell me she thought i was pretty and asked me if i had a bf. I always said no. One day in the middle of a lesson i asked to go to the loo. Unbeknown to me she was there at the same time putting her eye liner on. She followed me in to the cubicle and sat on the toilet seat, and locked the door. She then asked me if i'd been with a girl before, i said no. She loosened my skirt and let it drop to the floor, then eased my underwear down to my knees and placed her hand in between my legs . I was mesmerised and inquisitive to know what she was going to do. I lost my nerve and got scared and said No stop, she said she wouldn't hurt me and carried on. I said no stop. She ignored me and carried on. She used her other hand to grab one of my breasts.

She kissed me putting her tongue in my mouth. She said next time i would have to do it to her. We cleaned up and went back to our class. Whenever she sees me now she just gives me a wide smile. I am too embarrassed to talk to her, and have not told anyone else previous to my confession on here.

I went to a private boys only boarding school where there was a lot of testosterone amongst boys. I was a new boy and considered ' pretty ',but  a boy started to bully me, then another older boy warned him off and started to protected me. He said he would protect me from that day forward. He said i should say goodnight to him personally every night before bed. When i went to say goodnight, he said come with me, he took me in to a store room and ordered me to kneel. I thought it was some kind of initiation. He said i had to give him blow jobs on demand. I said no and he slapped me hard  across the face. I got scared and started to cry, he called me a ' pretty boy bitch ' and was going to slap me again, so i started to do what he wanted.  He said that from that point on, he said i was his pretty boy bitch. I would meet him before bed each night.

I said i didn't want to and he beat me with a belt until i started crying and agreed to do what he wanted.  He and his 2 friends said if i told anyone they would say i initiated it.  I left the school after a year, it's left me confused about my sexuality. I was told it happens a lot in boarding schools. I've since been tested for sexual diseases. Luckily i have not got any sexually transmitted diseases. Parents who send their kids to same sex boarding schools should be aware that there is hyper testosterone, and good looking boys are made to perform sex acts or get beaten.

A new boy joined our school, he was the talk of the school because he was soo hot. He was 2 years older than me. We talked a little and liked each other. There was a party that we both were invited to one weekend. I was really looking forward to seeing him. We both had too much to drink and snuck off together, he kissed me and it felt so good. His hands were all over me, he knelt then pulled my panties down and started to eat my pussy, again i loved it as no one had done that to me before. He then took me to a bedroom and we had full intercourse. About a 3 days later my mom told us about our cousins had moved to the area and they were visiting. When they did, who should walk through the door but the guy who did me a few days earlier. But we both didn't know at the time. He has since said he still wants to see me again. I've now got mixed feelings. It's wrong but i really like him.

A popular older boy in my new school said he liked me and was always paying me compliments. It was just before spring break and he said he wanted to meet up with me in the park. I had been having really lovely dreams about him being my first bf. When the day came i put on a new dress and went to meet him, we went to see a movie first then walked to the park. It had started to get a little dark and i said i had to get home. He said he wanted to kiss me behind a big tree. I said ok, but as he pressed up against me i could feel his penis was erect and pressing on me. I was embarrassed but said nothing.

He tried to put his hand between my legs and i said no. So he squeezed one of my breasts while kissing me. I told him to stop. He took his penis out and ordered me to kneel and suck it. I said no, he said i couldn't leave until i did, as it was getting dark i knelt and started to do what he wanted. He held my head firmly in place, after about 2 mins he ejaculated in my mouth. I spat it out, he then walked me home, but we didn't talk. When i got in i went straight to bed and cried all night. I felt so humiliated, but didn't want anyone to know.

I had a drug habit and needed cash to support it. I had to work on the streets for cash, on my second night a man pulled up asking if i was available for business. I said yes, he said get in. He said he only lived 2 mins away. He drove us to a nice looking apartment block, no one was around. He had the keys and we went up. When in the room he ordered me to strip, then handcuffed me to the bed. He told me if i behaved when he'd finished he would let me go. He beat me for 5 mins with a belt, he said to soften me up and make me comply. He then raped me,  He then tel someone, and about 20 mins later  2 other men turned up, the lights were turned off and all of them took turns to rape me, and beat me whenever i objected.  I was kept for about 6 hours, the main person drove me back to where he picked me up. I reported it to police, when police arrived the first question he asked was ' did i get paid ', i said no. He said next time get the money first. He said someone had stolen the keys to that apartment. He then asked to see where i had been bitten me on my breasts , i showed him the teeth marks and he took a photo. He said he would contact me if there were any developments.  No further action was taken.

The award-winning documentary “Fly So Far” looks at the criminalization of abortion in El Salvador through the incredible story of Teodora Vásquez, a woman who in 2008 was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she had a stillbirth at nine months pregnant. Vásquez was released in 2018 after more than a decade behind bars. El Salvador has enforced a total ban on abortions since 1998, and dozens of people have been convicted and imprisoned after having miscarriages, stillbirths and other obstetric emergencies in the Central American country. The film highlights the stories of women convicted of aggravated homicide for having a miscarriage or an obstetric emergency, as well as the ongoing resistance of women and the LGBTQ+ community in El Salvador. Filmmaker Celina Escher, director of “Fly So Far,” says women and girls in El Salvador face high rates of violence, rape and femicide, as well as hostility from the right-wing government. “Women have to live this violence every day,” she says.

Watch Highlights by clicking on the link below;

“Fly So Far”: New Film Tells Stories of Women in El Salvador Jailed for Decades Under Abortion Ban | Democracy Now!

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain. 2 July 2021

90210's AnnaLynne McCord recalls horrific abuse and rape she suffered as a child - but she insists her abusers are NOT 'bad people' and 'deserve an opportunity for redemption'.

·         The 33-year-old actress spoke candidly about her trauma in a new interview, discussing childhood abuse and her rape by a friend at age 19

·         She said her abusers made 'bad decisions from bad places that they were in at the time' and 'deserve an opportunity for redemption'

·         Years after she was raped at 19, she ended up in a scene on 90210 in which the same thing happened to her character

·         She recalls she 'went into hysterics, just my whole body was wrapped with tears'

·         The actress previously shared how her childhood abuse led her to develop dissociative identity disorder (DID), once known as multiple personality disorder

AnnaLynne McCord has shared her very magnanimous perspective on the people who sexually abused her as a child and raped her as a teenager, insisting they are not 'bad people' but instead just made 'bad decisions.'

The 33-year-old 90210 actress spoke candidly about her trauma in a new interview with creative agency House of Influence, revisiting details of the night a friend raped her in her own bed at age 19.

'The truth is, we're not good and we're not bad. Even the person who sexually abused me as a child, and the person who sexually assaulted me when I was 19, they're not bad people,' she said, according to The Sun Newspaper.

AnnaLynne has managed to find it in her to be forgiving towards her abusers despite years of trauma.

'I came from horrible abuse. I grew up going through all of these horrible things that… that caused me absolute terrible pain,' she said.

She'd blocked out her childhood abuse for years, but it all came pouring back in when she was raped at 19.

AnnaLynne first shared story in essay for Cosmopolitan in 2014, recalling how a man in her friend group whom she had considered a friend needed a place to sleep for the night, so she invited him over.

'We sat on the bed and talked for a while, then I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was inside me,' she wrote for Cosmo.

'At first, I felt so disoriented and numb, I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep,' she went on. 'I wondered if I had done something to give him the wrong idea. I felt afraid of making him angry. Believe it or not, I didn't want to offend him. I just wanted it to be over.'

Finally, when she worked up the nerve to tell him to stop, 'He stopped and went in the bathroom and finished.'

In her new interview this week, she discusses how she 'froze' after he left her.

'I did nothing, I laid there until 5:00 AM, until the sun started to peek through, and I could feasibly, in my mind, explain that I got up early,' she said.

'I wrote a note like I suddenly had to go to a meeting at 5:00 AM. It wasn't really making any logical sense, but I had to get out of my own house.

'I sat in my vehicle down the street hidden by a bush, waiting to see his car leave and then I went back to my place and showered and tried to pretend like that had never happened.

AnnaLynne said she didn't acknowledge what had happened until ten months later, when a mutual friend speculated that she was in love with the man who raped her — and she correct him.

'I was like, "No, he… Yeah, no he raped me,"' she said.

A couple of years later, AnnaLynne was on 90210, where no one knew about her history. But coincidentally, the script featured a storyline in which her character was raped by her English teacher. After, she, too, was accused of being in love with him.

'The showrunner literally writes my story in the script of 90210 without knowing it, unfortunately, because it is so common,' she said.

'It was as if I got thrown back to when I was 19 in this moment with my friend, and this whole thing happened. I went into hysterics, just my whole body was wrapped with tears.'

The star noted that it's a prime example that 'you never know what someone's battle is, you never know what someone's going through.'

In April, AnnaLynne spoke openly about how her trauma has continued to impact her, divulging her battle with dissociative identity disorder (DID), which is formerly known as multiple personality disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is characterized by alternating between multiple identities, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

A person with the disorder may feel like one or more voices are in their head and have gaps in memory of events, including trauma.

She shared her diagnosis in a YouTube video that was posted by brain disorder specialist Dr. Daniel Amen.

She said she is now examining how the sexual abuse she suffered may have led to her dissociative identity disorder.

She discussed her memory loss, explaining that she doesn't remember anything about her life before the age of five, and after that, she can only remember several 'incidents' of abuse, recollections that were triggered by her rape at age 18.

'I don't have anything until around five, and then from five to 11. I recount incidents throughout,' she said, noting that she also has gaps in her memory after age 11.

'And then when I was 13, I have a singled-out memory that was just one thing, that I don't have a sense of anything else at that time.'

However, she does remember having a split personality when she was 13.

'She was a balls to the wall, middle fingers to the sky, anarchist from hell who will stab you with the spike ring that she wears, and you’ll like it,' she told Dr. Amen. 'Then she’ll make you lick the blood from it.'

What is dissociative identity disorder?
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) was previously known as multiple personality disorder and is classified by the presence of two or more distinct personality states in those who have it.

Dissociative disorders - including DID - usually develop as a reaction to trauma, as a means of keeping difficult memories at bay.

As well as the presence of alternate identities, DID symptoms can also include amnesia and other mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

The most commonly used treatments for DID are talk therapy and medication; however, other methods may be suggested depending on the individual and their symptoms.

The actress added: 'She was a nasty little creature, but I have so much gratitude to her because she got me out of the hell that I was in.'

The actress, who received her DID diagnosis before meeting with Dr. Amen, revealed that her doctor told her she suffered from it 'pretty seriously,' and that she likely had 'definitive splits' prior to her memory returning.

Although she can now identify she had a split personality from the age of 13, she can look back on her childhood behavior and see evidence of the disorder at an earlier age, before her memories came back.

'Before my memories came back, I had definitive splits. In my history, you’ll see me, I would just show up with the black wig and a new personality and I was this tough little baddie, and then I’d be the bohemian flower child,' she explained.

The anti-trafficking activist now believes that her disorder also played a part in her work as an actress, explaining that all of her roles, in one way or another, were 'splits' — split personalities ‚ although she was not aware of it at the time.

It was not until she took part in the 2012 independent movie Excision that she began to become aware of the symptoms that she now recognizes as signs of DID.

'All of my roles were splits, but I didn't even realize I was doing it at all until I did [Excision],' she shared.

In the movie, which she filmed while on hiatus from the hit Fox series 90210, AnnaLynne played the role of Pauline, a 'disturbed, strange girl.' She recalled struggling to let go of that character and return to her day job playing a rich Beverly Hills teen.

'I played a very, very cerebral, disturbed, strange girl, that was very close to who I feel I am on the inside,' she said. 'And it was very exposing, confronting, and a little bit re-traumatizing without realizing it...and even healing as well.

'And then when I was 13, I have a singled-out memory that was just one thing, that I don't have a sense of anything else at that time.'

However, she does remember having a split personality when she was 13.

'She was a balls to the wall, middle fingers to the sky, anarchist from hell who will stab you with the spike ring that she wears, and you’ll like it,' she told Dr. Amen. 'Then she’ll make you lick the blood from it.'

What is dissociative identity disorder?
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) was previously known as multiple personality disorder and is classified by the presence of two or more distinct personality states in those who have it.

Dissociative disorders - including DID - usually develop as a reaction to trauma, as a means of keeping difficult memories at bay.

As well as the presence of alternate identities, DID symptoms can also include amnesia and other mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

The most commonly used treatments for DID are talk therapy and medication; however, other methods may be suggested depending on the individual and their symptoms.

The actress added: 'She was a nasty little creature, but I have so much gratitude to her because she got me out of the hell that I was in.'

The actress, who received her DID diagnosis before meeting with Dr. Amen, revealed that her doctor told her she suffered from it 'pretty seriously,' and that she likely had 'definitive splits' prior to her memory returning.

Although she can now identify she had a split personality from the age of 13, she can look back on her childhood behavior and see evidence of the disorder at an earlier age, before her memories came back.

'Before my memories came back, I had definitive splits. In my history, you’ll see me, I would just show up with the black wig and a new personality and I was this tough little baddie, and then I’d be the bohemian flower child,' she explained.

The anti-trafficking activist now believes that her disorder also played a part in her work as an actress, explaining that all of her roles, in one way or another, were 'splits' — split personalities ‚ although she was not aware of it at the time.

It was not until she took part in the 2012 independent movie Excision that she began to become aware of the symptoms that she now recognizes as signs of DID.

'All of my roles were splits, but I didn't even realize I was doing it at all until I did [Excision],' she shared.

In the movie, which she filmed while on hiatus from the hit Fox series 90210, AnnaLynne played the role of Pauline, a 'disturbed, strange girl.' She recalled struggling to let go of that character and return to her day job playing a rich Beverly Hills teen.

'I played a very, very cerebral, disturbed, strange girl, that was very close to who I feel I am on the inside,' she said. 'And it was very exposing, confronting, and a little bit re-traumatizing without realizing it...and even healing as well.

She added that she had struggled with symptoms of bipolar disorder for years, but admitted that she actually relied on her 'manic' behavior as a means of pulling herself out of a depressed state.

'I would use my manic symptoms to get me out of depression, I would kind of manipulate my symptoms,' she explained. 'I knew that if I went on a crazy sex spree, or a shopping spree, or any kind of heightened thrill-seeking type things, I could always manipulate myself out of depression so I never really got too stuck.'

However, in 2017, she 'went down a depression spiral' that she could not bring herself out of 'no matter what she did.'

'I tried to go on no-sleeping benders to activate my mania, I tried sex, spending [sprees], I tried traveling all over the globe the first part of that year but I could not get out of the depression.'

Referring to AnnaLynne's brain scan, Dr. Amen said that he believes the actress used her split personalities as a means of 'managing' her childhood sexual trauma.

'When you've had intense childhood sexual trauma, you split as a way to manage it,' he said. 'And the brighter you are, the more you split.'

He also suggested that the actress may have had an undiagnosed brain injury, which could also be an underlying cause of her condition.

The star, who noted that there is a 'massive spectrum obviously' of disorder in how it impacts people battling it, said that her goal is to shift the way society views people dealing with the disorder.

'For me, my heart is to change this narrative around these behaviors that follow trial of the trauma, and not treating someone or responding to someone or judging someone from their actions but asking, "What happened to you? How did we get here?' she said.

Days later, she sat down with Good Morning America for an interview in which she further discussed her struggles.

'I wanted to die for so much of my life. I didn’t want to be here,' she said. 'And now I wake up every day and I say thank you I’m alive again.'

She said she realized she needed help a decade ago on the set of 90210 after she filmed a scene in which her character Naomi was raped.

'My whole body like just went into panic mode as if I was living out my life on camera. These moments were coming to light through my work. I didn’t understand anything about the mind or the brain at the time, I was just trying to do my job and I couldn’t. And it was very scary,' she recalled, adding: 'I found a way out.'

'When the memories started to come in, I just started saying, "No, no, this did not happen,"' she explained. 'It [her dissociative identity disorder] had put into a bubble all of the dangerous, toxic, harmful memories [and] locked it away.'

'For me, my heart is to change this narrative around these behaviors that follow trial of the trauma, and not treating someone or responding to someone or judging someone from their actions but asking, "What happened to you? How did we get here?' she said.

Days later, she sat down with Good Morning America for an interview in which she further discussed her struggles.

'I wanted to die for so much of my life. I didn’t want to be here,' she said. 'And now I wake up every day and I say thank you I’m alive again.'

She said she realized she needed help a decade ago on the set of 90210 after she filmed a scene in which her character Naomi was raped.

'My whole body like just went into panic mode as if I was living out my life on camera. These moments were coming to light through my work. I didn’t understand anything about the mind or the brain at the time, I was just trying to do my job and I couldn’t. And it was very scary,' she recalled, adding: 'I found a way out.'

'When the memories started to come in, I just started saying, "No, no, this did not happen,"' she explained. 'It [her dissociative identity disorder] had put into a bubble all of the dangerous, toxic, harmful memories [and] locked it away.'

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

War Rape 20 June 2021

Women migrants reduced to sex slaves in Libya 'hell'.

For Aisha, sexual slavery was something you only heard about happening to others in television reports, until she found herself locked in a living "hell" in Libya.

"I had left a nightmare only to fall into hell," said the migrant from Guinea, lured to the North African country that criminal gangs have turned into a den of racketeering.

Aisha fled her home country after five miscarriages: for her in-laws and the neighbourhood, she was either sterile or a witch.

But the young woman was simply diabetic.

"I just wanted to disappear from my country," said Aisha, a graduate in hotel management.

She contacted a former classmate who appeared to have made a life for herself in neighbouring Libya and who lent Aisha money to join her.

"I didn't even see the country. As soon as I arrived, I was locked up, I was a slave. She brought men to me and she got the money."

Locked in a room with a toilet, she only saw the "friend" who had duped her when she was brought in food, "like a dog".

"The men came drunk. I'd rather not remember it," said Aisha, still trembling. "I thought my life was over."

- 'Wouldn't wish that on worst enemy' -

After three months, a Libyan man took pity on her, threatened her captor and put Aisha on a bus to Tunisia with 300 Libyan dinars ($65) in her pocket.

After her diabetes was treated, she even gave birth to a baby girl late last year.

She now dreams of Europe, but returning to Libya is out of the question.

"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

For the past two years, she has lived with other migrant women in Medenine, southern Tunisia.

Most of the others who'd experienced Libya had also been forced into prostitution, raped or sexually assaulted, said Mongi Slim, head of the local Red Crescent.

"Some of them, if they had the protection of a man, they fared better. But for single women, it's almost systematic," said Slim.

Some migrants said they had been advised to take a three-month contraception jab before departure, and some travel with morning-after pills, according to UN reports.

Mariam, an Ivorian orphan, left with 1,000 euros ($1,200) to pay for the crossing from Abidjan to Libya via Mali and Algeria.

She hoped to earn enough in Libya to reach Europe.

But she ended up spending most of her year there in prison, where she was sexually exploited, before fleeing to Tunisia in 2018.

"I worked for six months with a family, then I set off by sea from Zuwara," a port in western Libya, said Mariam, 35.

"Armed men caught us, took us to prison and abused us," she said.

Mariam said she had fallen into the hands of militiamen who run illegal migrant camps where extortion, rape and forced labour are common.

Official centres under Libyan government control, and where the European Union-funded coastguard transfers would-be exiles it intercepts, are also riddled with corruption and violence, including sexual assault, according to the United Nations.

- 'Impunity' -

"Every morning, a chief would make his choices and send the chosen girls to Libyans who had rented special rooms," said Mariam.

"They fed me bread, sardines and salad. I stayed there a month until they moved me to another place," she recalled, her voice spiked with anger.

"They were armed, they smoked drugs, they paid the chief but not me."

According to rights groups, men and boys are also sexually abused.

"Sexual violence continues to be perpetrated with impunity by traffickers and smugglers along migration routes, in detention centres, judicial police prisons, and against urban migrants by militants and armed groups", the United Nations said in a 2019 report.

Such criminality increased with the intensification of the Libyan conflict from 2014.

Three migrant detention centres in Libya were closed in mid-2019 and the establishment in March of a new UN-sponsored transitional government has raised hope of a decline in impunity and violence.

The UN decided last year to deploy protection officers to combat sexual crimes.

But they have yet to even be recruited, and intercepted migrants are still turned back to Libya, to the dismay of international organisations.

On June 12, a record of more than 1,000 people caught at sea were sent back to Libyan jails, according to the UNHCR.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

Sexual Slavery New South Wales 1 July 2021

Extraordinary 'sex slave' contract signed by five girlfriends who ‘ forfeited their bodies, minds and will' to a ‘kinky sex overlord’ - as he's denied bail for 'keeping a woman in servitude'

·         James-Robert Davis, 40, was denied bail in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Monday afternoon

·         Court heard each of his five girlfriends have signed 'play' servitude contracts which aren't legally binding

·         Davis is accused of reducing a woman to servitude and keeping a slave - no charges relate to current partners

Five women who are dating a jailed 'kinky sex overlord' in a 'strange' polyamorous relationship signed servitude contracts before moving into his sprawling home, but his lawyer swears it was nothing more than 'play acting' that was not taken seriously.

James-Robert Davis was denied bail in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on Monday as he faces charges of slavery and reducing a woman to servitude.

He will categorically deny any wrongdoing, arguing the victim was well aware that the contract she signed was not legally binding between them.

His five current girlfriends, including one who is pregnant with his child, have all signed similar contracts, the court heard.

And yet each will testify that they are aware of the limitations of the document they signed, and do not feel compelled to stay in the relationship because of it.

Instead, the contract is meant to be an affectation of the 'play pretend' nature of their consensual, polyamorous BDSM relationship, the say.

'At no stage did my client exercise any real powers of ownership... There are aspects of play acting, affectations of slavery which do not amount to real slavery,' Davis' barrister Ian Lloyd QC said.

Daily Mail Australia has obtained a draft template of a contract that Davis reportedly issued to potential partners in the past, in which the 'submissive' agrees to 'forfeit elements of [their] body, mind and will'.

In the contract, the 'submissive' agrees to display affection whenever required and engage in 'predetermined kink events, kink related domestic and social activities, play parties and special days'.

The 'slave' signs over her sexuality and right to sexual gratification in the contract, which states that 'all sexual gratification whether by myself or others is a privilege granted at the grace and pleasure of my Owner'.

In total there are 20 clauses that a prospective 'submissive' must sign in the contract, which is reviewed first after three months and then renewed every six months.

The contract appears to be based on a broader template, given the names of Master/Slave are left blank, but was shared by an account named 'Master James' and specifically referenced the 'House of Cadifor', the name Davis gave to his 'BDSM family'.

Read the 'contract of fielty' reportedly given to Davis' potential partners
CONTRACT OF FIELTY TO MASTER _______ AND THE HOUSE OF CADIFOR

I Submissive ________, of sound body and mind solemnly agree to the following.

1:r03; I agree to enter into a contract of submission and servitude to ______, and upon signing hereby forfeit elements of my body, mind, and will to the ownership of the _______ as a token of my submission.

2:r03; I agree and understand that this will be enforced from the date of signing said contract for a period of three months, where on the completion of, my performance will be assessed and I may be offered a renewal of contract for a further six month period of engagement.

3:r03; I agree and understand that upon signing; that, as property of _______, I am a member of and subject under the general rules and regulations of the House of Cadifor, as well the overall authority of my Master; Master _____

4:r03; I agree and understand to be engaged to serve ______ in our personal life, in predetermined kink events, kink related domestic and social activities, play parties, or on other special days that _______ requires my services as dictated him.

5:r03; I agree and understand that I will display affection toward ______ as and whenever he sees fit, according to his needs and desires.

6:r03; I agree and understand that it is expected that if ______ wishes to partake in a recreational or social activity, and wishes for me to accompany him, that I will, wherever possible, do so, and endeavour to assist and serve as best as I can.

7:r03; I agree and understand that as property of _______, I no longer own my sexuality, or have right to sexual gratification. And that all sexual gratification whether by myself or with others, is a privilege granted at the grace and pleasure of my Owner. If I wish to seek self sexual gratification, I must first gain approval, and said approval shall last until it is revoked or suspended.

12:r03; I agree and understand that I am subject to chastisement, discipline, punishment, and retaining for any minor breaches of protocol, etiquette, or service according to what ______ sees fit.

13:r03; I agree and understand that my only rewards for service are;

·         The pleasure my service may bring to my Owner,

·         The growth and development that my service may render me

·         The compliments and encouragement that _______ may bestow upon me.

·         The scenes that ________ may grant to me in order to assist me open my eyes or push my boundaries.

·         The affection that ______ may give, only when it had been earned and is deserved.

·         The sexual gratification that _______ may allow me to seek or participate in.

15:r03; I agree and understand that if I breach my contract in anyway deemed by _______ to be a serious offence; my Owner reserves the right to terminate my contract and release me from Service.

I Submissive _____,

I herby agree to, and in sound mind, understand all the above. I herby surrender my will, mind and body into the ownership of ________. I herby pledge my fielty to the House of Cadifor, and its members as my brothers and sisters. I herby promise to carry out my service to the best of my ability; forsaking myself.

I herby solemnly swear all these several points on my honour; for the duration of the contract or until terminated or released from Service by _______.

Signed Submissive __________: ________________________

Signed Master ________: _____________________________

Witnessed Master ________: ____________________________

Mr Lloyd argued there is 'no way... [this relationship] could ever be categorised in law as slavery'.

He urged the public to keep an open mind and said any future jury would be expected to differentiate between 'real slavery... women being kept as sex slaves, and those that are living out a relationship with aspects of play acting'.

Davis and his girlfriends have always lived 'a strange lifestyle with elements of BDSM,' the court heard, but Mr Lloyd stressed that there 'is nothing criminal about that, per se'.

Davis was arrested in March and charged with possessing a slave, reducing a person to slavery and causing a person to remain in servitude after an AFP investigation and a 15-hour raid on his property near Armidale in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands.

Until then, Davis was living with the women in a 'consensual polyamorous BDSM relationship' at the sprawling rural property.

The home, which is 30km out of town, is owned by Davis and his pregnant girlfriend and has bedrooms for each of his other partners.

They split household bills evenly.

The court heard that one of the women is willing to be cross examined under oath, at which point she is expected to explain how important it is to her that Davis is home to witness the birth of their child.

Davis is facing one count of reducing a person to slavery, another of possessing a slave and a third charge of causing a person to enter into servitude.

None of the charges relate to his present girlfriends, and they all insist they are in a consensual and loving polyamorous relationship with the 40-year-old.

The women tuned in to the audio visual link on Monday afternoon to watch as Davis applied for bail.

Daily Mail Australia understands at least three of his girlfriends were going to make the six-hour trek to Sydney from their home to attend the hearing before the city was thrust into a Covid-induced lockdown.

Justice Mark Ierace refused bail, stating the proposed conditions did not satisfy the public's need to assure the safety of any complainants or witnesses.

He is accused of making a woman sign a contract to enter into slavery, forcing her to wear a steel collar and locking her in a cage for up to three days.

But Mr Lloyd argued that each of the women were given collars upon signing their 'play' contract, and that they had access to the Allen keys to unlock the collars whenever they needed.

Police allege the woman was subjected to extreme violence and threatened with court action if she broke the contract for the most minor of indiscretions, like going to the toilet without permission.

It is further alleged the woman was forced to work as a prostitute at a brothel six nights a week and hand over every dollar she earned when Davis was tight on cash.

This allegation will also be 'strenuously denied', Mr Lloyd told the court.

Alleged victim's claims against 'sex slaver'
According to a statement of facts tendered to the court, the alleged victim met Davis met in 2012 when he was in the army and the pair soon began living together at Maroubra in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

The woman allegedly initially consented when Davis began to introduce bondage, discipline sadism and masochism (BDSM) during sex because it did not intrude on their day-to-day lives.

But two months into the relationship Davis allegedly punched her to the ground. He allegedly began isolating the woman from her family and friends and took over handling her finances.

About a month later BDSM began to be incorporated into all aspects of the couple's lifestyle, according to the tendered statement of facts.

Davis allegedly told the woman she had to wear a 'submissive collar', described as a thick stainless steel ring which was secured by an Allen key and worn around her neck at all times.

By the end of 2012 a second woman was allegedly introduced to the relationship, followed by a third. Davis allegedly told the victim she was being promoted to 'slave' and asked her to sign a 'slave contract' which had accompanying 'slave protocols'.

'The accused informed her that the contract was a legally binding contract and if she breached the contract she could be criminally charged in a court,' the statement of facts said.

Davis allegedly told the woman she was 'worthless', 'broken' and useless each time she broke the rules.

The woman was allegedly forced to ask Davis for permission to perform everyday activities, including going to the toilet, or face punishment.

One of the punishments was allegedly being hit with a cane until she bled, which had led to permanent scarring.

The woman allegedly had to be naked at the front door when Davis returned home and remove his shoes so she could kiss his feet.

Police will allege Davis choked the woman to the point of unconsciousness multiple times and locked her in a cage for two nights and three days in a row.

'While the victim was in the cage he would assault her by repeatedly ramming a pole through the bars of the cage and into the victim,' the statement of facts said.

In 2014 the couple moved to Emerald in Queensland where Davis worked as a security guard for a strip club and the woman worked as the madam, allegedly without being paid.

'The accused forced the victim to have her slave number tattooed on her body,' the statement of facts said. 'The victim recalls the slave number started with S/N 95, followed by a unique number.'

Davis is also accused of coercing the woman into prostitution without payment when the pair moved back to Sydney in 2015 and the woman began work in a Surry Hills brothel.

The woman allegedly worked at the brothel six nights a week and was paid cash which Davis allegedly collected from her each morning.

In 2015 the woman escaped and moved into share accommodation, according to the statement of facts.

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

I was with my bf on a night out, we both got blindingly drunk when he wanted to get amorous in a shop doorway at night. It was very dark as we started to kiss. His hands were everywhere, but i didn’t mind. I was facing forward towards the shop entrance so could see anyone walking by. I thought i saw someone watching us, but when i refreshed my eyes by blinking he wasn’t there, so we carried on kissing. I hadn’t realized that my bf had taken my boobs out of my bra, and both my girls were on display as he kissed me.  As i was drunk my eyes were then shut from time to time. But something felt strange as i could feel that my bf had stopped kissing me, i felt cold against the night air. He had fallen asleep on me. The spooky stranger i thought i saw earlier had returned and was gently squeezing my right breast. I freaked out and he ran off, my bf was still asleep. Things like this can happen when you are deep in alcoholic drink.

I was at a house party organised by a school friend when i was 15. There were older boys who attended. I had no sexual experience. The party was rowdy and people were being sick and having sex. I had a few drinks but felt i was in control of my actions. An older guy grabbed my arm and pulled me in to the toilet and pushed me down to sit on the toilet seat. He must have been in his 20s. He tried to make me give him a blow job put. I said NO, he said ‘ it goes in your mouth or your vag, decide now ’. I started crying and he ran out.  I felt sick and humiliated about the way i was abused.

I was on a night out and went to the rest room in a bar, but there was a que so i thought I’d be clever and nip in to the men's loo and get a cubicle. It was busy and the men in there jeered and applauded, but i was bursting. I went in to an empty cubicle and thought I’d locked the door. I immediately raised my dress, lowered my underwear, and started to pee. Within seconds a drunk guy pushed the door open, and was surprised to see me. He didn’t leave tho, he locked the door behind him, as i begged him to leave. He said only if i gave him a kiss. I was squatted over the loo seat ( as girls don’t sit on men's loo seats) still doing my tinkle, he started saying what he’d like to do to me in explicit language. I asked him to look away while i dressed myself. He said no, so i had to pat myself dry with some tissue stand up to pull my panties up. He saw all my lady parts and had a good stare as i raced to make myself decent. Who says chivalry is dead?

On a crowded train on my way to work we were packed in like sardines. A middle aged man was stood at the side of me. As the train swayed he used it as an excuse to really press up against me, his arm brushing my breast each time. I could feel him breathing heavy. I was wearing a thin silk skirt so could feel all of him. By the time we had gone 2 stops i had enough, I got off at the very next stop just to get away from him.

I’ve always had very long legs and my friends always say so. I was in a local supermarket when some boys came in and started goofing around. One started talking to me face to face, i didn’t notice that one of his friends was behind me, until i heard the click noise of a camera phone flash light as he was taking a photo from under my skirt. I ran out, why are boys so stupid?

My stepdad got drunk with my mom one night. She was so trashed she fell asleep on the sofa. He came upstairs when i was asleep in bed and got in next to me. I thought it must be my mom and carried on sleeping until i felt my stepdad was having sex with me. He told me not to scream or tell anyone or he would say i initiated it. I had to wait 10 minutes until he had finished with me, then he left the room. I had to get the morning after pill the next day and have a sexual disease test. I couldn’t tell my mom because she wouldn’t believe me. The next day i got a friend to put a sturdy lock and 2 bolts on the inside of my bedroom door. We never talked about it after that.

I was 13 and at school we would watch nature films in a blacked out room. One day a boy i liked sat on the back row of chairs where there was only me and him sitting. During the film he put his hand on my leg, i was so shocked i did nothing. Then he undid the zipper on the side of my skirt and put his hand in,  and whispered in my ear to open my legs. I came to my senses and pulled his hand out, but felt so ashamed that he thought he could do that to me in a public space. He has since apologized.

I was on a dating app and started sexting a good looking boy who was my age 13. The conversations got very intimate over several weeks and he convinced me to send him revealing photos of myself. We agreed to meet after 6 weeks at a local park. I was so excited. A middle aged man turned up and said he wanted to be my friend. Never again.

When i was 15 i had a new bf and was so excited because he was the boy that all my gfs wanted, but he chose me. In the first month he asked me to stay over at his house as his parents were going away for the weekend. I told him i would only do so if he wasn’t expecting sex. He agreed so i was excited to spend time with him. We watched movies and had a take out meal and some cider. I fell asleep on the bed with him spooned behind me. At some point in the night i woke to find he was forcing himself on me. He was still spooned behind me but was using his free arm to hold me in place so i couldn’t break free. He said he wouldn’t stop until i had an orgasm. I tried to fake one, but he didn’t believe me. He told all his friends that he made me orgasm. I dumped him but was so embarrassed for weeks.

When i started my first job in an office, i was 17 and  thought appearance was really important as all the women dressed lovely, so i tried to do the same. But i would notice a man who would walk the same way as me to the train station, always walking behind me. I just thought he was going the same way as me so ignored it at first. It happened at the same time each day for several weeks. He would also be waiting at the station when i came home from work, then followed me home. Then on the way home from work one evening i saw him behind me, and he didn't hide from me, he was about my dads age and looked creepy. He tried to make conversation with me but i ignored him.  I told my dad who contacted police, they had a word with him and i haven’t seen him since.

I was a very shy child and as i entered my teens i was even more shy, especially with boys. At 14 years of age i was quite tall and gangly not one of the cool girls at school. By the time i started college i didn’t realize that boys started to take notice of me. I was 17 and still tall and skinny but my bra size was a DD. Even though i didn’t wear fashionable clothes or hang with a cool crowd. I was quite geeky and wore clothes that didn’t show my shape. My mom encouraged me to take drama class outside college hours to improve my social skills. I was hesitant at first, but went along with a gf from school. It was really fun, and i started to go each week and met new people. But my friend stopped going and i continued to go on my own. The class was unusual as it  had people of all ages from my age up to those in their 60s.

We sometimes would pair up to do scenes, i usually didn’t get picked until very near the end of who was left to pair up with. As 1 of the last to get paired up, I kept getting paired with an older black guy who was about 45 years of age. He was nice, very friendly and had very thick arms and shoulders like he worked out. He was always encouraging of me and he made me laugh and relax which was what i needed during drama class. After about 3 months in the drama class, i was getting on really well. My now regular class partner asked me if i’d like a macD and coffee on the way home as he could give me a lift. I naturally agreed as i felt like i knew him well enough. So we went and had something to eat, then on the way home he asked if i’d like to come to his apartment to chill out for an hour as he led me to believe his daughter who he said was my age lived with him. So i agreed, but when we got there she was not around. He took a phone call on minuets of arriving, after which he said she was staying at her moms house, as they were separated.

I didn’t think too much of it, we looked through his really old vinyl record collection and chatted. He offered me a glass of wine, and as i had started to relax and open up i said yes. But about 3 glasses later while sat on the sofa, he said can i be frank with you. He said he found me very attractive and would love to just have 1 kiss with me. As i was feeling confident and had never kissed a boy before i said ok just one. We both leaned in and he kissed me in a way i couldn’t fully understand. From that day on he took advantage of me, looking back i was naive and ill equipped to deal with a mature experienced man.

UN documents prisoners' torture, abuse in Ukrainian conflict

2 July 2021 War Rape;

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Prisoners taken by the warring parties in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have endured systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses, the United Nations human rights agency said in a report released Friday.

The report issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that prisoners' abuse was particularly rampant in the initial stage of the seven-year conflict, but noted that it continues to this day.

"Seven years since the outbreak of the conflict, it is unacceptable that such egregious human rights violation remain largely unaddressed," said Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. "The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is absolute. Torture can never be justified."

The conflict in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland called the Donbas erupted in April 2014 weeks after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula that followed the ouster of the country's former Moscow-leaning president. Russia-backed separatists took control of large areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, established the so-called `people´s republics' and fought the government forces attempting to reclaim control. More than 14,000 people have been killed.

The OHCHR estimated the total number of conflict-related detentions from April 14, 2014 until April 30, 2021 at 7,900-8,700 , including 3,600-4,000 by the government side and 4,300-4,700 by separatists.

It said in the report that both sides used secret detention facilities immune from any prosecutorial oversight or access by rights monitors. The government side stopped using them in 2017 but the separatists continue to hold prisoners incommunicado, denying access to their relatives and monitors to that moment, the OHCHR said.

he OHCHR analyzed more than 1,300 individual cases of conflict-related detention. It said that in cases that occurred only between 2014-2015, 74% of detainees held by government forces and 82.2% to 85.7% of those held by the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions respectively were frequently subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

It estimated the total number of conflict-related detainees subjected to torture and ill-treatment in 2014-2021 at around 4,000 - 1,500 at the hands of government agents and about 2,500 by separatists. They included an estimated 340 victims of sexual violence.

The OHCHR said that both in the government-controlled and separatist-held territories "torture and ill-treatment, including conflict-related sexual violence, were used to extract confessions or information, or to otherwise force detainees to cooperate, as well as for punitive purposes, to humiliate and intimidate, and to extort money and property."

Methods of torture and ill-treatment used by both sides included beatings, dry and wet asphyxiation, electrocution, rape, forced nudity, water, food, sleep or toilet deprivation, mock executions, hooding, and threats of death or further torture or sexual violence, or harm to family members.

Stanislav Aseyev, a journalist who worked for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and spent 28 months in the Izoliatsia (Isolation) separatist prison in Donetsk, said the facility had an elaborate system of torture that put emphasis on electric shock.

"They would strip a person naked tied to a metal chair with a band and then apply electric shock to different body parts," Aseyev, who was released in a 2019 prisoner swap, told The Associated Press.

Aseyev, who was also subjected to torture, said that hearing others screaming in pain under torture in a nearby cell has added to the trauma. "It's unbearable to hear a person crying from torture in a neighboring room," he told the AP.

OHCHR pointed to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as the most common perpetrator of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment on the government side, adding that volunteer battalions were also responsible at the initial stages of the conflict.

On the rebel side, the report said that various armed groups and later members of separatist `ministries of state security´ were responsible for prisoner torture and abuse.

The report noted that most of the abuses have remained unpunished.

"We have observed a lack of political will and motivation to investigate the cases allegedly perpetrated by government actors, as well as misuse of procedures to avoid proper investigation of such cases," Bogner said. "While we can count victims in the thousands, perpetrators brought to account only number in the dozens."

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

#MeToo? Chilling effect of Bill Cosby reversal feared.

When Indira Henard, director of the DC Rape Crisis Center, received the text message Wednesday, she thought she wasn´t reading her phone correctly. "Indira oh my god," said the message from a colleague. "Cosby´s walking out of prison."

"I put on the news and there it was, and my heart just dropped," Henard said. "I thought about how all our survivors would be feeling."

During the afternoon, Henard says the center´s hotline was "off the hook, with survivors needing a place to process, and people asking, `What happened? I don´t understand. He got convicted. Why would they do this?´" The center held support sessions Wednesday evening and scheduled emergency sessions Thursday to deal with the news.

When America watched Bill Cosby - once "America´s Dad" - go off to prison nearly three years ago, it was perhaps the most stunning development yet of the nascent #MeToo movement, which had emerged in late 2017 with allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Advocates and survivors of sexual assault hoped the movement would usher in an era of accountability for harassers and abusers - and in many ways, it did. Victims have been increasingly emboldened in recent years to seek justice, even for years-ago abuse, hoping their allegations would be taken more seriously.

But on Wednesday, as the nation digested the equally stunning sight of Cosby released from prison, some worried it would have a chilling effect on survivors, who often don't come forward because they don't believe it will bring justice. And they wondered whether some of the movement´s momentum, already slowed by the pandemic, would be lost amid the feeling that another powerful man had gotten away with it - albeit on a technicality.

"It´s been a hard day," Henard said. "It´s a deeply painful moment - not just for survivors in the Cosby case who came forward at great personal risk, but for all survivors."

This story includes discussion of sexual assault. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

___

For Tarana Burke, the prominent activist who gave the #MeToo movement its name, the first reaction to the Pennsylvania court´s decision was "shock, definitely shock."

"And as the shock settled in and I started seeing some of the (social media) commentary coming in ... we, folks who do this work across the field, started huddling together to talk about what our response would be," Burke said in an interview. "It was just real concern for survivors. We´re going to have a hard time sleeping."

"The fact of the matter," added Burke, herself a sexual assault survivor in her youth, "is we won´t see the ramifications of things like this for a while. People will look back and say, `I was sexually assaulted a week before the Cosby verdict was overturned. And the way that the backlash hit the Internet made me change my mind.´ We won´t hear those stories for a while. But those of us who have been through similar things - we know exactly how this hits and where it lands and what the consequences are, unfortunately."

RAINN, the anti-sexual violence organization, said its hotline calls were up 24 percent Wednesday from the previous week. "This is one of those times I really pray people will read beyond the headlines," said Scott Berkowitz, executive director.

"I think the country believes the victims," Berkowitz said in an interview. What does worry him: "Many survivors choose not to report to police, and for those who do report it´s a hard decision because they know it´s going to be a long, difficult slog through the justice process. It only makes sense to put yourself through that if you believe that at the end, there´s a reasonable chance of getting justice." He said RAINN would try to educate people that "the issue that let Bill Cosby out is not an issue that comes up in a normal case."

That´s the point that Lisa Banks - one of the nation´s most prominent attorneys in #MeToo issues with her partner, Debra Katz - sought to drive home. "The message has to be very clear and simple, that this was a mistake by prosecutors, a very unusual one and a technicality that is unlikely to happen again," she said.

She was referring to the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that District Attorney Kevin Steele was obligated to stand by his predecessor´s promise not to charge the comedian, though there was no evidence that agreement was ever put in writing.

"Sure, the optics of the first major conviction of the #MeToo era walking out of prison is devastating," Banks said. "I don´t think that´s something many people are going to get past very easily. But I will say one thing that (Cosby accuser) Andrea Constand said when the verdict came down: `Truth prevails.´ I still think I did. And I don´t want people to get discouraged by this, although I know it´s going to be hard."

For activist Anita Hill, the word "technicality" wasn´t quite adequate to describe what she sees as a deeply flawed legal system stacked against survivors.

The issue of the non-prosecution agreement was, Hill said in an interview, "revealing in how hard it is for women to actively prove to prosecutors their claims should be heard in court by a jury." She also found it troubling that the court had left open the question of whether the prosecution´s use of five additional accusers was improper, as Cosby had argued, "creating this other uncertainty."

"Uncertainty: that's the thing that keeps people from coming forward," said Hill, who famously came forward herself in 1991 with harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. "They just don´t know what´s going to happen. And you do know it´s going to be really brutal."

The general public, she said, likely won´t understand the complexities of why it happened: "There was a jury verdict. He was in jail. Now he´s not."

As for #MeToo: "it´s a work in progress," said Hill, who now chairs the Hollywood Commission, which combats harassment in the entertainment industry. "Old systems are hard to change - they require a different mindset. So I think we still have to keep pressing. We have the social movement, we have the public outrage. But we need reform of the systems that have been in place forever."

Henard said she and her colleagues at the DC Rape crisis center were spending Thursday listening to survivors. "I´m really concerned around the chilling effect this will have," she said. "Particularly for Black and brown survivors, this is cutting deep. We are bearing witness to tears and pain, survivors wondering, `What is it going to take for a verdict to sit and not get turned over because of a technicality?´ This man raped not one, not two, not three not four but (dozens of) women, and so we can´t forget that," she said, referring to accusations against Cosby that never went to court, often because the statute of limitations had run out.

But Henard said Wednesday's court decision, shocking as it was to so many, "in no way diminishes the good work of the #MeToo movement."

"We´ve made great strides in the last few years," she said. "There´s more great things that have happened and will continue to happen. What this moment does is remind all of us, especially those of us who have boots on the ground, that there´s still work to do."

We do not typically name victims of Rape & Abuse, but this story is already in the public domain.

Turkey officially withdraws from treaty protecting women.

ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey formally withdrew Thursday from a landmark international treaty protecting women from violence, and signed in its own city of Istanbul, though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted it won´t be a step backwards for women.

Hundreds of women demonstrated in Istanbul later Thursday, holding banners that said they won't give up on the Council of Europe´s Istanbul Convention. "It's not over for us," one read. Similar protests were held in other Turkish cities.

Erdogan ended the country´s participation in the convention with a surprise overnight decree in March, prompting condemnation from women´s rights groups and Western countries. A court appeal to stop the withdrawal was rejected this week.

Erdogan announced his "Action Plan for Combating Violence against Women" on Thursday, which includes goals such as reviewing judicial processes, improving protection services and gathering data on violence.

"Some groups are trying to present our official withdrawal from the Istanbul convention on July 1st as going backwards," he said. "Just like our fight against violence towards women did not start with the Istanbul Convention, it won´t end with our withdrawal."

In March, the Turkish Presidency´s Directorate of Communications issued a statement saying the Istanbul Convention was "hijacked" by those "attempting to normalize homosexuality - which is incompatible with Turkey´s social and family values."

President Erdogan emphasized traditional family and gender values Thursday, saying combating violence against women was also a fight to "protect the rights and the honor of our mothers, wives, daughters."

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price tweeted that Turkey´s withdrawal was "deeply disappointing and a step backward for the international effort to end violence against women."

Women, LGBT groups and others have been protesting the decision. They say the convention's pillars of prevention, protection, criminal prosecution and policy coordination, as well as its identification of gender-based violence, are crucial to protecting women in Turkey.

Hundreds of women gathered Thursday amid a heavy police presence in Istanbul's main pedestrian thoroughfare. Protesters held colorful banners, feminist and rainbow flags, played music, whistled, and shouted slogans. Police closed off the area but later briefly removed barricades to allow a short march.

Amnesty International's Turkey campaigner Milena Buyum tweeted from the protest after police re-closed the avenue with barricades: "The irony of hundreds of women & LGBTI+ rights defenders being blocked by a huge number of predominantly male police officers is not lost." The rights group's observers said police used tear gas after they told demonstrators to disperse.

On Saturday, police dispersed LGBT demonstrators with tear gas and detained dozens, who were later released.

Data by the We Will Stop Femicide group show that 189 women have been murdered so far in 2021 in the country, and 409 last year.

Earlier, Amnesty International called Turkey's withdrawal "shameful" in a statement.

"At the stroke of midnight today, Turkey turned its back on the gold standard for the safety of women and girls. The withdrawal sends a reckless and dangerous message to perpetrators who abuse, maim and kill: That they can carry on doing so with impunity," said Amnesty International´s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard.

My male boss pinches my ass, smacks it, or brushes against my chest on a daily basis. I need my job so try to laugh it off. I’m 45 years of age. He regularly makes jokes with male colleagues about me. We recently hired a young girl who is 18 and it’s her first job. She has now started to become the focus of his attention. He called her in to his office the other day and asked her some very personal questions on the pretext of finding out if she was suitable to work late some evenings with him. When she came out of his office her face was red. I asked her what had happened. She said he wanted to know if she had a bf and how many x a week she saw him. He also asked how often she was intimate with him. I want to stand up to him but know i can’t afford to lose this job. Its the same with all the women here. Men are still behaving like Jeffrey Epstein and sexually harassing women in the workplace.

Eritrea is where i lived most of my life. The country is run by corrupt government officials. They have squads of soldiers that can just come and take you at any time, and you won’t be heard of again. My sister and i are 17 , and 19. Soldiers came and took our parents a year ago and we don’t know if they are alive or dead. Then soldiers came and took my sister, i haven’t heard from her. They took me but only for a short period i don’t know why. I was taken to an army captains barracks. We had a one to one discussion where he made it clear to me that he is looking for obedient girls who understand they are property.

He had 2 older women wash and prepare me for the evening. I had dinner with him then he showed me to a private room where he took pleasure in raping me several times. He did it in a matter of fact way, he didn’t care and this happens routinely. The outside world doesn’t care. Even though united nations accused the govt of war crimes and rape, they simply deny it. After he let me go saying i was too westernised i met some international reporters who helped me learn English and gave me access to internet whenever they were in Eritrea.

This is how i am getting this message out. Women are routinely raped daily, men are taken for national service that never ends. My fathers friend has been doing national service for over 20 years. The only hope is to try and escape across the border. It is difficult without money or supplies. Please pray for the average person in our country who are slaves. Please make the world take notice and help us.

I got a job at a fashion store just at weekends. The lady who owned the business was very friendly mature about 45, but i had no idea that she was lesbian. One Saturday after closing she asked me to help her in the stock room. I obliged and she would make comments about me being a goth. She said she liked my look and did i have a gf or bf. I said not at the moment. She told me to come close to her, and started to kiss me on the lips, then put her hand on my left breast and said i had a large bust for my age (15). She started to take photos of me in the shop and asked me to remove my top, i did but was embarrassed.

No one had ever been so forward with me. I was so embarrassed and didn’t know if i consented or was taken advantage of. Despite her calling me many times and leaving messages, i was out of my depth so never went back.

I was just 13 when i was at school and didn’t realise that my periods had just started. A girl in my class had taken me to one side and said there was a large stain at the back of my skirt. She asked me about my period and i said i had no idea about periods.  She lifted my skirt and my white underwear was red with blood. A boy who was walking by saw what was going on and took a photo of my blood stained underwear and me crying in distress. When the teacher found out they disciplined the boy and deleted the photos he had taken of me in a distressed state showing blood on my underwear. The teachers were really good and warned the boy that if he spoke about what he’d done he would be expelled and possibly the police may prosecute him.

I am 14 and at school. I had a bf for 6 months it wasn’t serious. We didn’t do anything intimate, but one day after playing at the park we came back to his house and i fell asleep on the bed. Unbeknown to me he lifted my skirt and made  a short video of me asleep  showing my underwear. Then he put a dildo he had and positioned it just below my ass and continued filming the video without my consent. He sent the video to everyone in his friends. I couldn’t go to school for a week because i was so humiliated. I finished with him , and he has been begging ever since to get me back. I’ve told him never.

A man who lived at the house that faced our back garden always appeared to be looking to catch sight of me. In the summer when i would sunbathe in our back garden i could feel him watching, but not actually see him. Apart from when i was sun bathing on a particular weekend and i caught the glimpse of a flash when the sunlight catches glass or metal. I could see him in his bed room looking through binoculars directly at me. When i met friends and went to the park I’d see him there. I once went to my bf parents house and when i came out his car was at the end of the road. I know because of his cars this odd colour.

Then it escalated, he started saying hello on the street, so i felt i had to say hello back. I came out of the nail bar and saw him a few feet away. He complimented me on the way i looked and asked if i was going out with my bf that night. I was wearing  a low cut top and he couldn’t take his eyes off my cleavage. I went with a gf to a hairdressers that was out of town and found when i came out i could see his odd coloured car at the end of the same road. I reported it to police and they went to see him and found 100s of photos that he had taken of me. They also found that he had placed a tracker underneath my car, and that was how he was able to know where i was 24/7. Creepy. He was warned to stop that behavior.

My mom divorced and got a new partner, he was now my step dad, who came with his son to live with us. His son was 17 and i was 14. I would see him walking around the house in the morning or late at night and i could see he usually had an erection. He didn’t try to hide it, and i had never seen a boy like this. One day on his way to the bathroom he said to me he wanted to take some nice photos of me. I said as long as they are not nudes. He gave me some wine to loosen me up, but i felt tipsy as he was taking the photos. At one stage i just passed out. The next day he showed me the photos on his phone which were of me topless. I started crying so he said he would delete them. I don't know if he did, but we didn't mention it again.

I have a job in an advertising agency and regularly have to meet clients for lunch and early evening appointments. We had a big client that my boss said we had to keep their business. The client knew this and always asked for me to handle his account. I knew he was interested in me but always kept it professional as i have a bf. I always took another colleague with me because he was known to be ‘ handsy ‘. 7 days before the contract was due to be signed he made many attempts to get me on my own. He insisted that i came to his office late at night, but i would only agree to daytime or early evening appointments. Finally he waited for me to come out of my office and approached me. He said if i wanted the contract signed i had to have dinner with him. I refused, and later on found the contract went to another agency, where i was told the woman who managed this client was more obliging than i was.