Suja Jones, the Indian mother who took her French husband to court for allegedly raping their three and half year old daughter, read out a letter written by her child at an event for raising public awareness about child sexual abuse
By Team FI
On the day of Christmas, a candle light vigil was held in Bangalore to raise public awareness against child sexual abuse. The vigil, which started at 6 pm and attended by 80-odd people, was organised particularly to express solidarity with the ongoing legal fight of a four and half year old girl child, who was allegedly subjected to sexual abuse by her influential French father when she was just three and half years old.
The father of the child, Pascal Mazurier who works for the Ministry of External Affairs, France and is posted at their consulate in Bangalore, is now facing trial for raping his daughter. Suja Jones, the Indian mother, is facing systematic character assassination by the powerful and privileged husband, his friends and men’s rights activists in India. She is being targeted for protecting her children by keeping him and his family away from the child who is still traumatised by the incestuous abuse.
At the event, a letter voicing the child’s anguish, written with the help of a large network of people’s / women’s movements, was read out in English and Kannada.
Feministsindia is reproducing the full text of the Letter of a child yearning for justice.
I am a child yearning for Justice
I thank you for taking this time to listen to my voice, and to hear my deep cry.
I stand as the voice of all those children who have faced sexual abuse in their lives
I speak for the children whose lives are marred because of violence against our bodies; our spirit
My future stands blurred because the memory of violence follows like a shadow over my head.
I am the child who faced violence at the hands of one, who I trusted and loved,
Who stood before me as a strong ground, and as one on whom I very much depended on to teach what is right and wrong,
I could not cry out against him as he was my own father, one whom others also loved…
I did not know how to differentiate between what is acceptable and what cannot be pardoned.
The pain of the abuse that I experienced repeatedly in secret came to the fore one fine day
When my plea “please don’t hurt me there” was once again drowned in the loudness of my own cry…
I could bear it no longer and wondered if I would survive to share this horror story
Of a scarred body and spirit – only three and a half years old – to which you could add a decade to every year!
Listen friends; I speak to each one of you who stand here today: the choice that YOU have
To either address my pain and divide it … or multiply it by your stunning silence, passivity, and ignorance
Do you know there are thousands like me who want their beloved society to understand…
That the scales of justice would work better, if only it would listen to the truth of our experience?
If I have gathered courage to speak today against all forms of violence against children, especially sexual abuse
It is because I believe that human beings can change for the better and realize their utter common oneness.
If Christmas day is celebrated as the day when Jesus the Christ child was born into this world to bring peace
We, as children, need your help, partnership and support to usher in new ways of building a Just Community.
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Written with the support of a large network of People’s / Women’s Movements including Vimochana, Praja Rajakiya Vedike (PRV), All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), Aneka, Bangalore Birth Network, FeministsIndia, Jana Vikasa, Jeeva, Karnataka Sex Workers Union (KSWU), Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum (KSMF), Samara, Secularism Is A Women’s Issue – international network, Siloam Girls Boarding Home, South Asia Citizens Web, Swaraj Network, Student Christian Movement of India (SCMI), UTC Women’s Studies Department, Women’s Initiative for Citizenship and Universal Rights and many others
Featured photo: candle light vigil outside Town Hall building, Bangalore
Related article: Solidarity campaign for Suja Jones and child
Dear Syham
My heart goes out to the child, who is subjected such pain. God hear her cry and that of other little children who are hurt by those who promise to love a protect them when their born.
God have mercy on all children and protect them from hurt. They deserve to be in a safe world free from fear