THEMATIC REPORT 2017 SEXUAL TORTURE The stigmatisation of sexual torture “We did not see these patients in the very moment it happened, it was not the day or the week after. When they managed to speak up, many years had passed. And in a lot of cases, they start treatment and only years later they can tell us about this aspect of their experience.” EATIP Argentina “Usually we find out that they have been tortured sexually because they refer to pain in the genital region. Then we refer them to a doctor, and this is the moment when we can start to ask if they experienced sexual torture. We usually understand that it happened before they tell us, but we cannot force anybody to talk about it. There is a very high stigma related to it.” RCTV Memoria Moldova The participating centres find that the stigma attached to sexual torture is often linked to perceived gender roles in a given society. Within the confines of these roles, both male and female victims often feel unable to speak out about their torture and instead find ways of coping without disclosure. Staff at CTV Bosnia & Herzegovina, for instance, refer to the difficulty of many female survivors to say no to unwanted sexual intercourse. “Sexual intercourse triggers those memories. But sometimes they do it anyway, but without any pleasure, just to be a good wife, to fulfil their role.” Staff at CCTI Mexico describe how the perception of what is masculine means that male victims are unlikely to disclose the abuse they experienced. “The majority of the cases we know of are about female victims, because women talk about it, men do not.” CTV staff have similar observations, “You know, in our culture, women are considered to be weaker than men, and many things can be forgiven to a woman, but for men there is no excuse, especially here in our region. I think that perpetrators were guided by this fact.” “We had a tough job to make him realise, just as many other beneficiaries, that he was not guilty for what happened to him and that there is no place for shame. There is always an irrational feeling of guilt both in male and in female victims of sexual torture. Because they ask themselves: ‘Did I do something to provoke that man?’ This is also one of the reasons why they do not want to disclose their story. They hide it because anyone could ask them, did you maybe do something that provoked this horrible thing to happen to you.” page 19 CTV Bosnia & Herzegovina